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BOOK 



HUMAN NATURE 



ILLUSTRATING 



THE PHILOSOPHY (NEW THEOEY) 



INSTINCT, NUTEITION, LIFE; 



„WITH THEIR CORRELATIVE AND ABNORMAL 



PHENOMENA, 

PHY^SIOLOGICAL, MENTAL, SPIRITUAL. 



BY LAROY^SUNDERLAND, 

AUTHOR OF THE " BOOK OF rSYCHOLOGY," " BOOK OF HEALTH," 
" PATHETISM," ETC. ETC. 



n 



I 




NEW YORK : 
STEARNS & COMPANY, 

26 ANN-STEEET. 
1853. 






6 



Entered, according lo Act of Congress, in the year 1853, 

BY STEARNS & COMPANY, 

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the 

Southern District of New York. 



.4 



CONTENTS AND INDEX. 



PAGE. 

Biography 7 

Preface 19 

Announcement 23 

PRELIMINARY. 

1. Information Wanted 25 

2. Nature's Prophecy 26 

3. Good Time Coming 26 

4. Theories. 28 

5. Necessity of Investigation.... 29 

6. Competency of the Human 

Judgment 30 

7. Hindrances 30 

THE DIVINE. 
Love, Will, Wisdom. 

8. First Cause ♦ 32 

9. Infinite Design 32 

10. Ends, Causes, Effects 33 

11. The Divine Inmost 34 

12. Doctrine of Degrees 33 

13. Importance of this Knowledge 35 

14. Illustration 37 

NATURE. 
Substance, Aggregation, Universe. 

15. Matter 44 

16. Heat 44 

17. Motion 45 

18. Light 45 

19. Kingdoms 45 

20. The Mineral Kingdom 46 

21. The Vegetable Kingdom 46 

22. The Animal Kingdom.. ,. 46 

23. The Celestial 46 

LAW. 

Association, Progression, Development. 

24. Mineral, Organic, Moral 47 

25. Responsibility...,. 48 



38. 



PAOB. 

Pain 49 

Chemical Laws 50 

Polarity 51 

Attraction and Repulsion 51 

Positive, Negative 52 

Angular Molions 53 

Degrees of Motion 53 

Heat, Motion, Light 54 

Truth 55 

Doctrine of Correspondences . . 55 

Relation 57 

Perfection, — Good, Imperfec- 
tion, — Evil 57 

Forms, Uses 58 

THE HUMAN SOUL. 

Motion, Life, Sensation. 

Life 59 

TheHumanForm 59 

Origin of the Race 60 

Hypothetical 61 

Instinct 61 

Vegetable Instinct 62 

Nutrition, Life 62 

Vitality 63 

THE HUMAN BODY. 
Mineral, Vegetable, Animal. 

Organic Life 65 

Hypotheses 65 

Nutritive Fluid 66 

Animal Life 67 

Growth 68 

Sleep 69 

Nature of Sleep 09 

Wakefulness, Exercise, Eges- 

tion 71 

Correspondential Phenomena. 72 

Motive Life 73 

Ingestion, Retention, Egestioa 73 

Instinctive Phenomena 73 

The Cerebellum 74 



IV 



CONTENTS AND INDEX. 



PAGE. 

60. Male and Female 77 

61. Generation 78 

6-2. Maternal 78 

63. Nerves of External Sense 79 

64. The Cerebrnm 79 

65. Decussation 81 

66. Physiognomy 82 

67. Nervous Associ;itions 82 

68. Respiration, Circulation 83 

69. Sympathy... 83 

70. Individuality... 84 

71. Ahnornial Action of the Senses 85 

72. Functions of the Nutritive 

Fluid 86 

73. Degrees of Sensation 86 

74. Suspension of the Senses 87 

75. Excitement 87 

76. Doable Senses 88 

77. Double Brains 88 

78. Soul— Mind— S|)irit 88 

79. The Soul, the Love Principle. 89 

80. Instinctive Love 89 

81. Sensuous Love 89 

THE HUMAN MIND. 
Consciousness, Intelligence, Reason. 

82. Receptive Mentnl Eniotioqs.. 91 

83. ileteniive Mental Volitions... 91 

84. Relative Mental Actions, 91 

85. Self-Control 92 

86. Power— Will Principle 92 

87. Mental Love— Life of Mind.. 93 

88. Intellectuality 93 

89. Intellectual Emotions 93 

90. Volitions 93 

91. Actions 94 

THE HUMAN SPIRIT. 
Knowledge, Intuition, Prevision. 

92. The Wisdom Principle 95 

93 Emotions 95 

94. VVhatisLove? 95 

95 Volitions 97 

96. Spiritual Actions 97 

97. The Human Will 98 

98. Illustrations 98 

99. Volition 98 

100. Reason 98 

101. Mentfil Harmony 99 

102. E.xternal Reason 99 

103. Knowlenge 100 

104. Intuition 100 

105. Philosophy of Intuition 100 

106. Intellectual Power 101 

107. Universal Harmony 101 

108. Health 102 

109. Pleasure — Happiness 103 

1 10. The Problem of Evil 104 

111. Manhood 107 

112. Death 109 

INSTINCT. 
Physiological, Vital, Mental. 

113. Memory 113 

114. Three Degrees of Memory. . . 113 



PAGE. 

115. Conditions of Memory 114 

116. Abnormal Memory 114 

117. Can Memory he Improved?.. 116 

118. O^ 'J'l'e Curative Princi- 

ple „,d! 117 

119. Vitnl Phenomena 117 

120. Functional Power 117 

121. What is it? 118 

122. Muscular Mocion 119 

123. Motio;is of the Nutritive Fluid 122 

124. Abnormal Motions 123 

125. Perfection, Beautv 124 

126. The Human Voice 124 

127. The Mind, and Nutritive fluid 125 

128. Extraordinary Results 125 

129. Disease and Death 126 

130. What is the Substance of 

Mind? 127 

131. 23^ Perfect Nutrition „^0 128 

132. 1' urther Reasons fur this con- 

clusion 128 

1.33. Nature's Method 130 

J34. Unnatural Drujifiing. , 1.30 

135. Receprocity of Mind and Body 131 

136. Illustrations 131 

137. Cerebral Excitements 132 

138. Abnormal Cerebral Action.. . 133 

139. Chemismand the Mind 134 

140. Congenital Phenomena.. .... 135 

141. Temperaments 136 

142. Degrees in tlie Temperament 136 

143. Combination of Temperaments 137 

PHENOMENA. 
Congenital, Correlative, Abnormal. 

144. Constitutional Tendencies... 138 
14'5. Dreams, Trance, Somnam- 
bulism 138 

146. Fits 139 

147. How Induced? 140 

148. Disease 141 

149. Insanity 143 

150. Spheres 144 

151. The"Od" 146 

1.52. Philosophy of Spheres 149 

153. Idiosyncrasy 151 

154. Sympathetic Imitation 152 

155. Instinctive Sympathy 152 

1.56. Antipathies 152 

1.57. Intuitive Knowledge 153 

1.58. How IS it? 153 

1.59. How is it developed? 153 

160. Intuition 154 

16 1 . 'J'o be considered 154 

162. Cases of Intuition 155 

163. Abnormal Cases Stated 157 

164. What does not follow 159 

165. Prevision ICO 

166. Prophetic Dreams ; Itil 

167. Singular Case of two Sisters. 163 

168. Remarkable case of Thomas 

Walton 164 

169. Clairvoyance 165 

170. Degrees of Clairvoyance 165 

171. Presentiments 107 



CONTENTS AND INDEX. 



PAGE. 

PSYCHOLOGY. 
Influence, Sympathy, Effluence. 

172. Human Influence 169 

173. Pathetism 170 

174. Conditions of Power 171 

175. Mental Associations 172 

176. Charms, Fascination 172 

177. Halhicinations 172 

178. Mysteries Explained 173 

179. Laws of Habit 173 

180. Mental Sympathy 174 

181. Analysis of this-Slate 174 

182. Spiritual Unitv 175 

183. Philosophy of Menial Ef- 

fluence .^ 176 

184. Government of Children 176 

185. How to do Good 180 

186. Corresponding Characteristics 180 

187. The Germ 180 

188. The Idea 183 

189. Tradition 184 

190. Mental Contagion 185 

191. The Crusades 185 

192. Heroism 185 

193. Panics J86 

191. Mental Infection 186 

195. Fanaticism 190 

196. Trails of Fanaticism 193 

197. The Invisible 193 

198. Tlie Unknown 198 

199. The Invisibles 199 

200. Sympathetic 202 

201. Miracles 204 

202. Witchcraft 210 

203. Conditions of Witchcraft.... 213 

204. Superstition 214 

20.5. Sectarianism 216 

206. Sectarianism Defined 220 

207. Seclarianism Unfriendly to 

Science 221 

208. Opposed to Freedom 223 

PNEUMATOLOGY. 
Spirits, Possession, Inspiration. 

209. The Spiritual World 225 

210. What has Occurred V 228 

211. Unaccountable Phenomena. . 230 

212. Mysterious Intelligence 232 

213. Method of Investigation 234 

214. Personal 235 

215. What has done if? 239 

216. Suggestions 243 

217. Not Ephemeral 243 

218. Grade of Spirits, whence they 

Come 244 

219. Correspondence in God's 

Works 244 

220. Contradictions Admitted 245 

321. Their Use 245 

222. The Exienal not the Real.. 246 

223. Characteristic Details 254 

224. Tests of (^.ngeniality 254 

225. Tests of Knowledge 256 

226. Sympathetic 857 



PAGE. 

227. Very Limited 260 

228. Conjectural. 263 

229. Te.sts of Truthfulness.. 264 

230. Political 265 

231. Insincere 267 

232. The False 268 

233. Tests of Personal Identity. . . 271 

234. 'I'ests of Intelligence 275 

235. Spirit Writings 277 

236. Letters written by Spirits.... 279 

237. Literature of Spirits 280 

238. Spiritualism of these books 

Conceded 28.5 

239. What do the Spirits want. . . 285 

240. Spiritual Instructions 286 

241. Curiosities of (Spirit) Litera- 

ture 292 

242. Tests of Grade 299 

213. In what sense are Spirits ever 

reliable 309 

244. Possession — Infestation 312 

245. Instruction — Admonition 318 

246. Guardian Angels 322 

247. The Great Test of Use 325 

248. Inspiration , 331 

INTELLECTURAL CULTURE. 
Education, Discipline, Improvement. 

249. Aspiration 339 

250. The Model Man . . 340 

251. His Goodness, Truthfulness, 

Harmony 348 

252. Impediments 350 

2.53. Hereditary 351 

254. Educational 352 

255. Innate Total Depravity 352 

256. A Picture of Depravity 353 

257. Vindictive Punishment 355 

258. An Angry God 356 

259. Injustice 357 

260. Another Picture 358 

261. Science 360 

262. Philosophy 363 

263. The Divine Philosophy 367 

264. Correspondences 368 

265. Progressive 370 

266. The Human 371 

207. Theology 371 

268. Man-Science 372 

269. Selfhood 374 

270. Egotism 374 

271. Self-knowledge 375 

272. The Conjugal 377 

273. Marriage 377 

274. Polygamy 378 

275. True Marriage 380 

276. Divorce 381 

277. Celibacy 382 

278. Correct Views 383 

279. The Parental 384 

280. Important Conditions 385 

281. 'J"he Filial 387 

282. The Fraternal 390 

283. The Universal 391 



CONTENTS AND INDEX. 



VI 



PAGE. 

284. Virtue 396 

285. Goodness 397 

286. Justice 400 

287. Integrity 402 

288. The Family Circle... 406 

289. Circles for Mental Culture... 406 

290. Declaration 408 

DIVINITY. 
External, Internal, Inmost. 

291. Sectarian Theology 409 

292. Biblical Contradictions 410 

293. Literal Contradictions.... „. 412 



PAGE. 

294. Spiritual Contradiction 412 

295. Essential Contradictions 413 

296. Fatal Contradictions 415 

297. Discordant views of the Deiiy 415 

298. The True God. 415 

HUMAN DESTINY. 
Harmonious, Progressive, Eternal. 

299. The Evils to be Remedied... 426 

300. Problem of Society 428 

301. Freedom 428 

302. Labor 430 

303. Fraternity 431 



BIOGRAPHY OF THE AUTHOR. 

In presenting this work to the public, it affords the pub- 
lishers pleasure in being able to gratify the reader with the 
following accurate account of the Author. Now admitted to 
be one of the most extraordinary men of this or any preceding 
age, it is not marvelous, that a general desire should be felt 
to know something of his private history. Having been before 
the public as a Clergyman^ an Editor, and Author ;* and, 

* The following are among the publications made by Mr. Sunder- 
land, and they are here named nearly in the order of their ap- 
pearance : — 

I. A Question (on Temperance) to Those whom it Concerns. Now 

London, Ct., 1828. 
2. A Sermon. This Life a Time of Probation. Boston, 1830. 
8. Biblical Institutes. New York, 1884. 

4. Essay on Theological Education. New York, 1834. 

5. Appeal on the Subject of Slavery. Boston, 1834. 
G. History of the United States. New York, 1834. 

7. History of South America. New York, 1834. 

8. Testimony of God against Slavery. Boston, 1834. 

9. The Watchman (Periodical). New York, 1836—1842. 
10. Anti-Slavery Manual. New York, 1837. 

II. Christian Love. New York, 1837. "^ 

12. Mormonism Exposed. New York, 1842. 

13. Anti-Mormon Almanack. New York, 1842. 

14. The Magnet (Periodical). New York, 1842-48. 

15. Pathetism, with Practical Instructions. New York, 1843. 

16. " Confessions of a Magnetiser," Exposed. Boston, 1845. 

17. New Phrenological Chart. Boston, 1847. 

18. Book of Health. Boston, 1847. 

19. Pathetism. Man, considered in Eespect to his Soul, Mind, 

Spirit. Boston, 1847. 



V]ll BIOGRAPHY. 

especially, as a Lecturer on Mental Philosophy for the space 
of tliirty years, it is a laudible curiosity which seeks grati- 
fication in the biography of the remarkable man, who has 
startled and astonished such multitudes by his mysterious 
intellectual powers, and who has, certainly, performed more 
real wonders in mental magic, than all the wizards,- or con- 
jurors of modern or ancient times : — 

" LaRoy Sunderland is well known as transcending all who 
have attempted' to explain to us the mysteries of the human 
mind. No lecturer has ever attracted such crowds, or held 
them by such a spell. No one has produced results so 
magical ; doing, with no visible means, far more than alJ others 
have done with them." — Boston Chronotype, Nov. 10, 1847. 

We, naturally enough, desire to know something of the 
germ whence such wonders have originated ,_and the slow and 
certain steps by which one has arisen from obscurity and 
poverty, without opulent friends, and without any assistance 
(out of his own mind), has acquired such an eminence in pop- 
ular fame. The following testimony, coming, as it does, 
from one who differs in sentiment from Mr. Sunderland, will 
give the reader an idea of the estimate put upon his powers 
by those best competent to judge : — 

" LaRoy Sunderland. — This strange and extraordinary 
man continues to work his vcay into popularity, and his lectures 
are attended by crowded and eager audiences. We had little 
doubt that such would be the case, although we have very 
strong objections to his manner of presenting this -subject. 
He certainly performs wonderful, almost incredible things, and 
his entertainments possess every element of unbounded pop- 
ularity. He is a sort of hiLman chloroform, under wlioso 
operations your most cherished and deep-rooted prejudices are 
extirpated unconsciously to yourself." — Daily Sun, Philadel- 
phia, Feb. 28, 1S48. 

20. Pathetism. Statement of its . Philosophy, and its Discovery 

Defended. Boston, 1850. 

21. The Spirit World (Periodical). Boston, 1850-51. 

22. Book of Psychology. New York, 1852. 

23. The Original (Periodical). Boston, 1852. 

24. Book of Human Nature. New York, 1863. 



BIOGEAPHY. IX 

The increasing popularity of Mr. Sunderland's '* Books," 
which Ave are now publishing, set us to looking for some ac- 
count of the authors origin and life. For, although we have 
been familiar with his history for some years,* we prefer to 
take the accounts of him, which have already been laid before 
the public, as, perhaps, being better calculated to do him 
justice, than anything which we could utter.* We, therefore, 
begin with the 

TESTIMONY OF PHRENOLOGY. 

The following account was published, in 1842, before Mr. 
Sunderland had commenced his public labors, as a lecturer on 
Intellectual Philosophy. f If Phrenology be admitted as a 
science, as it now seems to be all over the world, then it bears, 
through one of its Apostles, the following testimony, as to the 
mental character of our Author : — • 

" Great energy, force, resistance ; prepared for almost any emer- 
gency; nnturally inclined to defend. hini?-elt', in spite of opposition; 
cannot submit to wliat he thinks is wrong ; great amount of courage^ 
both physical and moral, and menial courage to speak his mind 
itnder any .circumstances ; disposed to be severe to those whom he 
believes to be wrong; not cruel; naturally irritable; jias a strong 
love of children; a more than corauion faculty of governing and 
securing obedience.- 

" la strongly uttaclied to individuals, but not fond of society ; does 
not feel at home in promiscuous or gay circles ; will defend his friends 
courageously and generously ; sspeaks liis mind without fear, but is 
rather politic ; takes cognizance of foreign influences when he ex- 
presses his opinion ; has both boldness and caution in his language 
and conduct ; has a natural tendency to take care to be saving, not 
so much to make, or acquire property, as to save and value it'when 
made; more intense and pointed in his remarks than protracted, 
tixprcsses much in a few words; is remarkable for perseverance 
amid difficulties and obstacles, for the sake of overcoming. 

" It is morally impossible for him to refrain from doing or saying 
■what he believes to be his duty. Very sensitive about his moral clia- 
riicter and reputation, as a man of morals. lias not so much self 
esteem and regard for himself as a pe>-so/i, as ibr his position ; is very 

* One of our tlrm having been connected with the office, in this 
city (Piercy and Eeed's), where ilr. S. had his paper, " The "Watch- 
man," printed, in 1836. 

t This description was given by one of the most popular Phren- 
ologists of the day (see the "Magnet," 2d vol., page 81), and written 
down at the time, by the well known Mrs. E. W. Farnham, since of 
California. 



X BIOGRAPHY. 

desirous to have his word valued. Estimating his rights and per- 
sonal freedom highly ; his self esteem is remarkably strong in this 
manifestation, but not as giving pride. Love of power Mrong; 
wants to be felt as a man of power. 

" Disy)osition to scrutinize motives strong; power to do it, good. 
Great ability in discerning right and wrong. Tids is tlie leading fea- 
ture of his moral character. Sense of immortality strong. Sense of 
devotion not strong. Sympathy and hevevolence both mry strongly in- 
dicated. Sense of the exquisite, fanciful, not strong; prefers the 
beauties of nature to those of art. Prefers the strong, pointed, in- 
tellectual and forcible, to the finished, beautiful, high wrought. Love 
of the fanciful, extra finishings, &c. weak. 

" Capacity to adapt himself to the ways, manners and customs of 
men, in action, feeling, and thought, weak ; is a man hy himself 
with a mode of doing all these peculiar to himself. Marvelousness, 
more active than strong; n&lnvaWy slceptical, yet hope, reason, and 
conscience, s4iould produce a good degree of faith. 

" Capacity to enjoy and make fun ; fondness of gayety, excitement, 
&c., only moderate. He is a better philosopher than man of science ; 
more judgment than love of facts, prone to reason, inquire, meditate. 

"Comparison, sagacity, discrimination, criticism, good- memory 
of present events not so good as that of events of an older date. 
Seuseof time good ; better faculty for acquiring knowledge, than of 
retaining it. Arithmetical powers, weak. Desire for food, strong. 
Has a strong wish to be temperate, yet loves indulgence. Physical 
love, active, but not inclined to indulge much unless excited. Powers 
of iiiventiouj better than of manual dexterity." 



TESTIMONY OF THE PRESS, 

The following account, was written by Mr. Osian E. 
Dodge, Editor and Proprietor of the Boston Literary Museum, 
in which paper, it was first published, July 21, 1849 : 

" LaRoy Sunderland was born in Exeter, R. I., April 22d, 
1804. His ancestors were from Scotland. From an early 
age he manifested an intense love for books and study, and 
often exhibited some of those peculiar mental traits which have 
so much distinguished him in his profession as a lecturer upon 
Human Nature — perhaps beyond most that have ever pre- 
ceded him in this department of science. In 1819 we find 
him a student at Day's Academy, Wrentham, Mass. June 9th, 
1823, he made his first attempt as a Methodist minister, before 
a small congregation in Walpole, Mass. Before the cloee of 
the address, some dozen or more of his audience were under 
the influence of Fascination, and had entirely lost their self- 
control and strength. In meetings held in other places imme- 
diately after, similar mysterious results followed, so that it was 
not uncommon for large numbers of his audiences to fall into 
a state of Trance while he was addressing them ; in which 
state they would remain for hours ; of which, however, after 



BIOGRAPHY. XI 

their recovery, they would have no recollection whatever. 
These results were by many, in those days, attributed to the 
" Spirit of God ;" but in what sense they might be so consi- 
dered, we need not now stop to inquire, especially as Mr. 
Sunderland has given a full account of these things in his 
" Book of Psychology." We refer to these phenomena 
here, because their production thus early in his career as a 
public speaker seems to have put Mr. Sunderland upon a 
course of investigation into the Laws of Mind, which resulted 
in the new Theory he has since published to the world under^ 
the name of Pathetism. This term has come into general 
use, within the last few years, to signify " the philosophy of 
that influence which one mind exerts over another." Whether 
this theory be true or not, one fact must be admitted, that his- 
tory gives us no account of the man who has equaled LaRoy 
Sunderland in the power of Fascination, exercised over a 
promiscuous audience. 

" The discovery of this extraordinary power, which the sub- 
ject of our remarks found in himself, was purely accidental, 
and for some ten years or more, while devoted to the Chris- 
tian ministry, it was exercised without any design for produ- 
cing the results above described, though we believe he was 
somewhat noted for the revivals which generally followed his 
preaching, and which were more or less characterized by 
these strange phenomena. His zeal in public so much ex- 
hausted his strength that he lost the use of his vocal powers, 
and was in 1833, on this account, compelled to give up the 
labors of a pastor. The three succeeding years were spent in 
literary labors a,t Andover, Mass., during which time he wrote 
a number of books, that were published by the Methodist Book 
Concern, at New Yorlc. Among the number were ' A His- 
tory of the United States,' 'History of South America,' 
' Biblical Institutes,' and an Essay on ' Theological Education.' 
" To LaRoy Sunderland, the Methodist Episcopal Church 
is indebted for the first efforts made by her clergy, in behalf 
of Theological Seminaries, and an elevated standard of minis- 
terial learning. In the winter of 1836, Mr. Sunderland re- 
moved to the city of New York, where he commenced the 
publication of a paper called the ' Watchman,' devoted to the 
discussion of the slavery question, the agitation of which had 
been commenced in the M. E. Church, before by him, in this 
city, by writing and publishing an 'Appeal ' upon the subject. 
That discussion, as is well known, finally resulted in the dis- 
union of the Church. Mr. Sunderland, however, withdrew 
from the connection, in 1843, before this event took place. 
The ' Watchman' was ably edited, and conducted by him for 
nearly seven years, during which time he was subjected to a 



Xll BIOGRAPHY. 

series of trials, and a kind of opposition {persecution, it should 
be called), which mast have crushed any ordinary mind. 
During six successive years, he was prosecuted and tried be- 
fore the 'New England Conference,'— of which he was a 
member, — for matter published in his paper, but was eventually, 
in each case, honorably acquitted of the charges preferred 
against him. The manner in which he managed these cases, 
and defended himself before that body of ministers, gave him 
a character for forensic talents in such matters, which, per- 
haps, ?ew men, beside LaRoy Sunderland, have ever had the 
opportunity for displaying. In addition to these successive 
vexatious ecclesiastical law-suits, he was once, in 1837, in- 
dicted, in Livingston county, N. Y., for a libel, based on an 
account he had published of a mob in Mt. Morris. At the 
time of trial, he appeared before the Court of General Sessions, 
in Geneseo, and managed his own case entirely. The District 
Attorney, unwilling to risk himself alone against Mr. Sunder- 
land, engaged the Hon. John Young, since Governor of the 
State, to assist the prosecution, and Mr. Young declared, in 
his summing up, that though the defendant did not appear 
there as a lawyer, yet a more finished and able plea had never 
been heard before that bar, than the one offered by the defend- 
ant. It is needless to say he was honorably acquitted. In 
May, 1842, he commenced, and continued about a year and a 
half, the publication of ' The Magnet,' devoted to the science 
of Pathetism, Vvhich received from the press generally, 
throughout the country, the highest encomiums of praise for 
the very able manner in which it was conducted. 

" The ' spiritual power ' of which Mr. Sunderland found 
himself in the possession thirty years ago, he has since been 
in the constant habit of using in the relief of human suffering. 
A writer, in a recent number of the 'Practical Christian,' says : 
' In New England, no person has effected so many cures in 
this way, perhaps, as LaRoy Sunderland. He has lectured 
all over the Northern and Middle States. He does not hide 
his deeds in a corner, and there are multitudes who can testify 
to his healing power. He heals the sick by means of sym- 
fathy and will. He is no miracle worker, in the theological 
sense of the term. He claims no supernatural power. His 
works testify to his ' going about doing good.' The marvelous 
phenomena performed in his lectures are designed to call 
attention to the Philosophy of Man, and the ' laivs by which 
good is developed in all." " 




BIOGKAPHY. XIU 



INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY, 



To such as may never have had the opportunity of witness- 
ing Mr. Sunderland's wonderful perfornnances, or of attending 
his public lectures, the publishers submit the following testi- 
monies, as they explain his method of operating upon the 
human mind, and the practical benefits which have followed ; 
and they will show, moreover, the estimate which the public 
have placed upon his discoveries in mental science, as, also, 
his labors, both as a writer and lecturer, the originator of 
new IDEAS, which promise good to the human race. Indeed, 
it may be considered as no very equivocal compliment to La- 
Roy Sunderland, the author of Pathetisra, that so many at- 
tempts have been made, within three or four years past, to 
reap benefit from the use of some of his ideas, by presenting 
them to the public, without due credit to him, under certain 
cabalistic names.* 

An original idea is property, intellectual property, which is 
more valuable than physical wealth, inasmuch as the mind is 
more valuable than silver or gold. All inventions originate in 
the mind, by which physical wealth is acquired. The time 
was, when it endangered one's liberty to evince extraordinary 
degrees of knowledge ; because, ignorance and superstition 
implicated its possessor as "in league with the devil." But 
although that time has passed, in this country, it yet remains for 
those who perform arduous intellectual labors, to be secured 
in this right of property, as all will most assuredly be, v/hen 
society has progressed to that state of development when the 
reign of even and exact justice shall be complete. At pre- 
sent, however, it is humiliating to contemplate the lamentable 
want of that sense of right which should always attach to one's 
own intellectual vi'ealth. Indeed,' the " Patent Laws" are 
sufficient to show the truth of this remark. Why, else, do we 
have patent laws at all, securing to authors the right to their 



* "Electrical Psychology," "Electro-Biology," and "Mental Al- 
chemy." 



XIV BIOGRAPHY. 

own property, only for the term of " fourteen years ;" property 
which attaches to originators, for ever ! 

And, in this connection, it may be stated as a singular cir- 
cumstance, aifecting the subject of these remarks as it does, 
that, a recent application has actually been made to Congress 
for a patent, in the use of a Principle in respect to the Nutri- 
tive Fluid in the Treatment of Disease, a discovery, made 
and announced by LaRoy Sunderland, in 1847, as his published 
works will show ! One fact is certain, that if a knowledge of 
the '■'■ principle^'' here referred to, be of advantage to the 
reader, then the credit of its discovery and first announcement 
belongs to the subject of this memoir. But to his credit it 
may, indeed, be recorded, that he never contemplated a patent, 
for any of his Methods for doing good to the souls and bodies 
of men! 

That our author has hit upon what will yet be accepted as 
the true Theory of Nutrition, is the opinion of not a few in- 
telligent and scientific gentlemen ; and, whether true, or not, 
his views are certainly attracting the attention of Physiolo- 
gists, and Physicians all over the country. When sufficient 
time has been allowed for arrival at just conclusions upon this 
interesting and important subject, perhaps justice will be done 
to the author of the Book of Human Nature. ^Xovj , justice 
may be in all her operations, when contrasted with some other 
features in nature's developments, yet, we rest assured, that 
her decisions will be equal and certain in the final issue. 

The following are quoted as so many signatures which have 
been voluntarily placed upon record, as witnesses to the 
claims to which reference has just been made : 

From a personal acquaintance with Mr. Sunderland, who is 
a most talented and worthy man, we have no fear but he will 
do the subject justice. He has already published several 
valuable works on the results of his investigations. — People^s 
Advocate, March 31, 1842. 

LaRoy Sunderland is a gentleman of an inquiring philoso- 
phical mind, who has for some time past devoted himself to the 
investigation of a subject, the immense importance of which 
can as yet be but imperfectlv estimated. — The Pennsylvanian^ 
May 20, 1842. 



BIOGRAPHY. XV 

Mr. Sunderland has evidently studied his subject with great 
care and attention, and presents a work of no ordinary in- 
terest. He speaks with becoming modesty, is a man of truth, 
and therefore is entitled to be heard. The theory is very in- 
teresting, and has important practical bearings. — Liberty 
Standard. 

.Mr. Sunderland is evidently a vigorous reasoner, and 
whether his theory be correct or not, we think his views well 
worth examination. — Washington Banner^ May 21, 1842. 

We are glad Mr. Sunderland has undertaken the investiga- 
tion of this subject. His well established character for recti- 
tude, his powerful intellect, nice discrimination, and long ex- 
perience, eminently qualify him for the task. We have full 
and entire confidence in him, and believe he will impart a vast 
amount of genuine knowledge. — Broome {N. Y.) Republican. 

Mr. Sunderland is a man of science, and is every way quali- 
fied to make a popular work. — Boston Transcript^ June 24, 
1842. 

The testimony of the doctors was, that the experiment had 
entirely satisfied them that Mr. Sunderland wielded an in- 
fluence over the nervous system beyond the most powerful 
opiate. — Nantucket Telegraph, April 5, 1845. 

Mr. Sunderland then took hold of Dr. Paine, (who was still 
under his spell,) and led him to the somnambulist seated in the 
chair. And now occurred a sight upon which, probably, mor- 
tal eyes never gazed before. It was to see the somnambulic 
doctor in the process of extracting that tooth, while both he 
and the patient rvere in a state of trance, and neither of them 
able to open their eyes, or move a muscle without the consent of 
the lecturer. In a few minutes after, the doctor himself was 
seated in the front chair, the spell still upon him, and another 
physician present, (Dr. Lyman) proceeded to perform a similar 
operation upon him ! This experiment was intensely interest- 
ing, and highly satisfactory to the audience, as we suppose it 
the first and only one of the kind ever performed since old 
Adam v/as put into the " deep sleep," for the purpose of having 
the rib taken from his side. — Troy Budget, Sept. 23, 1845. 

" What Mr. Sunderland has accomplished during his visit to 
this city, has abundantly confirmed the newspaper reports we 
have seen of his wonderful performances in other places, 
which, in the production of psychological phenomena, place 
him far before all other men of whom history has given any 
account." — Troy Budget, Sept. 23, 1845. 

" The experiments of LaRoy Sunderland are different from 
one and all who have preceded him. Who can witness the 
results he produces, and doubt the existence of the humau 



XVI BIOGRAPHY. 

soul, or say in his heart, There is no God ?" — Pittsburg 
Daily Dispatch, April 9, 1848. 

" We have heard many lecturers on this science, but never 
yet have seen any who had such complete control over mind, 
or who made experiments more interesting or instructive than 
LaRoy Sunderland." — Daily Times, Cincinnati, Jane 1, 1848. 

"Mr. Sunderland is a gentleman of a keen and philosopiiical 
mind, and of immense reading and research, especially upon 
those extraordinary phenomena of the soul, to which he has, 
for the last few years, devoted his attention." — Louisville {Ky.) 
Journal, June 26, 1848. 

And to these, we might also add numerous testimonies 
borne to Mr. Sunderland, as a philosopher, by large and intel- 
ligent audiences, composed of clergymen, physicians, and 
others, competent to judge 'of this matter. The following 
specimens will suffice : — 

" By a large audience, in attendance on Mr. Sunderland's 
lectures, in JVIechanics' Hall, New York, on Friday evening, 
Dec. 11, 1846, offered by the Rev. Zenas Covel ; John ¥. 
Driggs, Esq., in the chair : 

" ' Mr. LaRoy Sunderland has produced results in his EX- 
PERIMENTAL LECTURES on the HUMAN SOUL, 
which, in the opinion of this audience, fully establish Pathetisrn 
as the true science of mind, and that Mr, Sundeiland's know- 
ledge of his subject eminently qualifies him for imparting to 
others the philosophy upon which this science is founded. 

" ' James Ashley, M. D., Secretary.'' " 
N. Y. Mirror, Dec. 13, 1846. 

" On Monday evening, March 8th, 1847, in Odd Fellows' 
Hall, Philadelphia : 

'^ '• Resolved, That we, citizens of Philadelphia, have been 
highly delighted, amused, and, we hope, morally and intellec- 
tually improved, by attending Mr. Sunderland's lectures on the 
science of Pathetism, and we do hereby express our gratitude 
for the intellectual entertainments they have afforded us. 

" ''Resolved, That, in parting with Mr. Sunderland, we feel 
the loss of one who has endeared himself to us, not only as a 
miost courteous and gentlemanly lecturer, but as one having 
the most profound knowledge of the human mind of any or 
all that have ever appeared amongst us. 

" ' Resolved, That the common courtesy due to a stranger, 
who has given such satisfactory evidences of the truth of 
Pathetism at his numerous lectures to the dentists, doctors, 
editors, and other scientific gentlemen, specially invited upon 



BIOGRAPHY. xvii 

the platform for that purpose, demands from them something 
more than a mere silent acquiescence in the Wonders of his 
performances. 

** ' Resolved, That Mr. Sunderland will always find attentive 
audiences, open hands, and warm hearts to welcome him, 
whenever he can make it convenient to visit us again. 
" ' John Evans, Chairman. 
" ' Geo. W. Duncan, Secretary.'* " 

Philadelphia Sun, March 10, 1817. 

" Friday evening, in Tremont Temple, Boston, Nov. 17th, 
1847, the following resolutions, presented by Rev. Mr. Morris, 
and seconded by Rev. E. T. Taylor, were passed by a large 
and intelligent auditory : — 

" ' Resolved, As the sense of this meeting, that we have not 
only been highly entertained in our attendance on the Lectures 
of Mr. Sunderland, by the new, amusing, and wonderful ex- 
periments he has performed on his audience, but, as we hope, 
morally and intellectually benefited by the information he has 
afforded us on the nature and laws of the human mind. 

" ^Resolved, That Mr. Sunderland's gentlemanly and cour- 
teous manners, his intelligence as a philosopher, his astonish- 
ing success as an experimental lecturer upon human nature, 
his generous attention to the sick in his gratuitous lectures to 
ladies, commend him to the confidence and patronage of our 
citizens."'* — Boston Ch. Freeman, Nov. 26, 1847. 

Fascinating from one to a hundred of his auditors, and com- 
pelling them, while otherwise perfectly conscious, to sing or 
dance at his will ; rendering them unconscious of pain while 
difficult surgical operations were being performed upon them ; 
fixing his spell upon eminent surgeons, and causing them — as 
in the case of Dr. Hoyt, at the Tremont Temple, Boston, 
March 12th, 1846 — to extract teeth from a patient, while doth 
were in a state of Unconscious Trance : these are, indeed, 
marvels, and such as have rendered LaRoy Sunderland one 
of the .wonders of the age, and it would be vain to suppose 

* " A Silver Cup, bearing the following inscription : — ' Presented, 
by the Ladies of Philadelphia, to Mr. Lalioy Suiiderlaiid, for his suc- 
cessful and satisfactory Experiments iu Pathetism, 1847." — JVutivc 
Euglc and American Advocate, Feb. 20, 1847. 

" Gold AVatcu Presentation. — The watch was double cased, with 
one diamond, and a complement of jewels, and cost $228. On the 
inner case, the following iiiscviption was beautifully engraved: — 
' Fathetism. — Presented, by Ladies of Boston, to LaKoy Sunderland, 
1847.' ^''—Boston Chronotype, Dec. 14, 1847. 



XVIU BIOGBAPHY. 

that any mere human being could perform these things with- 
out admitting that he must have almost unlimited knowledge 
of the greatest study in the world, viz : Human Nature. 
And this tribute was certainly paid to his talents, when his 
assistance was sought and obtained by the able counsel em- 
ployed in the defence of A. J. Tirrell, for the alleged murder 
of Maria Bickford. But for the difficulties arising in securing 
the stipulated fee, it would have never been known to others 
than the friends of the prisoner and his counsel, that Mr. Sun- 
derland furnished the " authorities " quoted on the question of 
Somnambulism in that remarkable case, or that he wrote that 
portion of the opening argument of the junior counsel, relative 
to the main point, which, as the issue proved, saved the life of 
the unhappy criminal. 



'PREFACE. 



With books as with men, the ^information actually com- 
municated, must depend, not merely upon that which is ut- 
tered, but also upon the receptive principle in those who read. 
All have, more or less, of that capacity which loves both to 
receive and to give knowledge. This is intellectual life. 
But this element, variously developed, makes the difference in 
our abilities for giving and receiving aliment, that is purely 
mental. 

The sectarian books of the past, may, each, subserve some 
comparatively good design. I find no fault with them ; they 
have each had their appropriate place, in the great system. 
And yet I know, that what I now utter will most assuredly 
conflict with many long established prejudices. If our pre- 
vious notions, associations, hopes and fears, be such as that a 
given truth would be likely to excite combativeness, that 
faculty of our nature which prompts to self-consei-vation, will 
resist, from the same principle that would lead you to repel 
any force that gave you pain. The Book of Human Na- 
ture, differs from other works, not only in the compass of its 
design, but also, in the method adapted for its accomplishment. 
Do not a large majority of the books, previously published, 
gratify the love of tradition ? This may, in some sense, be 
right. But, is it enough? Is it all that is wanted? Does it 
satisfy all 1 Does it, fully, meet the wants of the race ? Are 
they not, many of them, directly calculated to favor the 
bitter antagonisms of society? Or, do they contemplate a 
progressitm in the Divine Love and Wisdom ? Do they brinj? 



PREFACE. 

men nearer to the Infinite, and thus nearer to one another? 
And, has not the time come, when efforts like this, are de- 
manded by the wants of the age, by the signs of the times ? 
Have we not sectarian books enough already? May there 
not be one, whose motto shall be— One God! one Origin! 
one Destiny] Goodness and truth in all, and for all — a better 
state for all. Not, mathematically, the same in degree, but 
the same in nature, the same in its elements. No absolute 
evil, no eternal injustice ; but an immortal nature, evolved, 
carried on, perfected, and developed by the laws of eternal pro- 
gression, which correspond with the goodness, power and in- 
telligence of the Eternal God. 

Upon the threshold of what may perhaps be considered 
the most mysterious, if not the most important, developments, 
that have ever attracted the attention of mortals, it would 
seem that a free, fearless, independent book was wanted, 
especially if it may assist in any degree, to the knowledge of 
those laws, by which these strange things have been brought 
about. For, certain it is, that what are called " spiritual 
manifestations," or cases of obsession, possession, infestations 
by "spirits," are now multiplied and are extending all over 
this country, at least. 

If infancy need the help of superior wisdom to guard 
it against the evils to which it would otherwise be exposed, so 
does this Dispensation, this new Philosophy, need the united 
guidance which results from a large and matured experience in 
the laws of the material and spiritual worlds. . It is for the 
want of this experience that so much is now taken for spiritual 
manifestations which results mainly, if not wholly, from an ex- 
cited nervous system. Witness the communications made by 
clairvoyants and the so-called " mediums" whose nervous 
systems are abnormally excited, and which are obsequiously 
received, either as infallible revelations of the Divine Will, or 
veritable manifestations from pure spirits, without any admix- 
ture of the human medium through whom they are made. 
Witness the credulity with which communications are re- 
ceived in different localities, all purporting to come from the 
spirits of " Apostles and Prophets," and from Swedenborg, 



PREFACE. XXI 

and even from Jesus Christ ! And these " Apostles" are mul- 
tiplied like the frogs of Egypt, all over the country, and 
telling as many different stories as there are mediums suffi- 
ciently low to receive their utterances. Nor does it seem to 
tend, in the least, to open the eyes of those who receive these 
'''^apostolic''* communications, that the "St. Pauls," "St. 
Lukes," and Swedenborgs, are multiplied to such an extent all 
over the land. That they are not the same spirits responding 
in different localities, is evident from the fact that .they them- 
selves say so ; and also from the many different doctrines 
which they teach. Indeed, when apocryphal invisibles, as- 
sume authority to teach at all, is it noi prima facie evidence 
against them ? 

Witness, also, the avidity with which books are published 
from apocryphal spirits, where the names of particular persons 
are used, when there is not the jfirst particle of reliable autho- 
rity for so using the names once borne by mortals on this 
earth. Surely there are states in human progression to 
which it may be proper to apply the terms, sectarianism and 
fanaticism, and something is yet to be done, before nature's 
laws are understood as the greatest good of the race would 
se6m to require. 

That some of the most characteristic features of the pre- 
sent age, important as they are, should not be distinctly per- 
ceived and scarcely appreciated at all, by the great mass of 
the race, is not marvelous, when we take into consideration 
how it has always been with Nature's efforts. To what ex- 
tent was Jesus appreciated by his cotemporaries ? How 
small the number who really knew who he was, and heartily 
'co-operated with him in the great work it was his mission to 
perform ! And so it must be admitted that the great mass of 
mortals, at the present day, are not advanced sufficiently above 
infancy to appreciate the true Philosophy of Nature. They 
do not really believe in any spiritual world, nor do they begin 
to comprehend what is peculiar to a state of manhood. They 
are attracted mainly by the external. The almighty dollar 
has charms for them. Spiritual philosophy is far too high for 
the mass. Man's progression is slow, when compared with 



XXll PREFACE. 

developments which are below him. There are but few ad- 
vanced in years, but " here and there a traveller" who has a 
just idea of that other world to which all are bound. Well, it 
is a matter of gratitude that there are so many. Sure I am 
that the number will never be less ; and under the conviction 
that I have now done all in my power to make the number 
what it is, I feel a satisfaction which is sweet, indeed. 



^ 



AM^OUNCEMEFr. 



The following is a summary of the author's discoveries and 
observations, which he believes to be partly or wholly original 
and peculiar to this and his preceding works upon the same 
subject.* 

The Theory, here referred to, and which is set forth in the 
pages of this book, so far as the Principles a're true, are, in- 
deed, as old as Nature itself; but, in no previous work, it is 
believed, will some of them be found so distinctly elaborated, 
according to the relative part which each sustains in the eco- 
nomy of human life : — 

I. In respect to Instinct and the functions of the Nutri- 
tive Fluid. Its elements are Triune, and must be under- 
stood in order to comprehend the resultant manifestations of 
Life, with the Ingestivc, Retentive and Exclusive Motions, 
which constitute the Vital Economy : especially, such as are 
peculiar to the Nervous Systems ; Muscular, and Functional 
Power; Sympathy ; the " marks" upon children, and the 
rationale of all Congenital Phenomena. It is the real, and 
only " Vis medicatrix natures,'''' and it explains the true philo- 
sophy of sleep, growth, pleasure, pain, and death. 

II. The CORRESPONDING, Correlative phenomena of mind — 
Idiopathic, Suggestive, and Volitional: — 

1. The nature and causes of cerebral excitements, both 
natural and abnormal. 

* F-athetism, 1843, and 1847. Also, " Mooh of Psychology:' 1851. 



XXIV ANNOUNCEMENT. 

2. The rationale of induced insensibility. 

3. The rationale of mental and spiritual emotions, volitions 
and actions. 

4. The philosophy of mental influence. 

5. The true nature of disease and health. 

6. The causes of mental hallucination, fits and insanity. 

7. The nature of intuition. 

8. The rationale of induced trance ox fascination. 

9. The philosophy of the results attributed to swpernatural 
or miraculous power. 

10. The rationale of the effects attributed to talismans, 
amulets, charms, &c. 

11. The rationale of 57/m;?a^7iy. 

12. The connection between instinct, i]\e nutritive fluid and 
the human mind. 

13. The difference in the instinctive, ingestive, retentive 3.nd 
exclusive emotions, volitions and actions of the human mind. 

14. Connection between memory and the nutritive fluid. 
The brevity which the author has studied throughout the 

work, may have left some parts of the subject in comparative 
obscurity ; but the most inferior capacity, it is believed, will 
be able to comprehend the most of what I have written, espe- 
cially as I have pointed out, so distinctly, the means which 
will enable all to judge whether, in its principal features, it be 
true or false. 

Oharlestown, Ms., July 4, 1846. 



as 



BOOK OF HUMAN NATURE. 



Information IVanted. 

1. The present is distinguished from all previous periods 
by the superior power which spirit, or mind, exerts over 
matter ; the inner principle over the outer, the more refined 
over the external and more coarse. What are all the inven- 
tions of the present and past, but so many triumphs of spirit 
over matter? So many developments of the wisdom element, 
which gives us knowledge, and directs to the use of the most 
appropriate means for securing the best ends 1 It is, there- 
fore, that period in the world's history, when Man is found 
approaching that state of maturity in which, more than during 
any previous period, he is able to comprehend himself; the 
time when he obtains more satisfactory answers than ever 
before to such questions as these : Whence am I ? What are 
the elements of my nature 1 What makes me differ from 
another man 1 Why is one male, another female 1 What is 
evil 1 Whence is pain ? What is disease ? Health ? How 
many elements are there in the Divine nature 1 What is 
their order ? How many elements in human nature ? What 
is law r What is the true doctrine of correspondences ? 
What is the greatest good of each 1 What is Individuality ? 
On what does man's immortality depend? What makes man 
differ from an animal? What is death? What is spirit? 
What is matter ? What is virtue ? What is crime ? What 
are the laws concerned in man's origin, progression and final 
destiny ? What are the causes and cure of evil, hereditary, 
educational, social? What are the best methods for intellec- 
tual culture? What are the highest uses to which each 
should aspire in the various relations of life, individual, con- 
jugal, parental, fraternal, filial, universal ? What is the best 
form and order of society ? WJiat is man as to his spirit ? What 
is man as to his body ? What is our relation to the spiritual 

2 



26 BOOK OF HUMAN NATURE. 

world ? And what may we expect of goodness and truth from 
the spheres above 1 

Nature's Prophecy. 

Nature's prophecy, giving the answer, by anticipation, to 
these questions, has been uttered in various forms, in past ages 
of the world. Dark, uncertain, and angular, indeed, her first 
developments may have been, coming, as they did, through 
forms more or less imperfect. But whether among the He- 
brews, Hindoos, or Christians of ancient times, we shall find 
in the religious writings of all, the hope of future unity. And, 
so sanguine were many of the most learned Christian writers 
of the last century, that they even ventured to fix the precise 
year when the long expected good should be fully realized.* 

Crood Time coming. 

Yes, and that " good time " has indeed come to many. 
They have outgrown their exclusive notions of Nature, and 
of its Divine Spirit, as really as they have outgrown the gar- 
ments of their childhood. They now begin to see that there 
is more than one sense in which mortals may be said to be 
infants, and how true it is that " a child may die an hundred 
years old." 

And then, to the above, add the still greater multitudes who 
have, till now, been denounced by sectarians as " sinners," 
" skeptics," and " infidels," without the " covenanted mercies 
of God," a class of people who have always formed the vast 
majority of the human family, and whose numbers have in- 
creased with the increase of the race. All the labors of popes, 
bishops, priests, ministers, and deacons; and all the " revivals," 

* Benjelias and Wesley limited it to 1886 ; Hobershon and others 
fixed on 1814 ; Wolf and others, on 1847 ; Wood and Hales, on 1850 j 
Faber, Scott and others, on 1866. 

Hans Wood, Esq., of Koseweadia, Ireland, in 1787, suggested that 
the 70 weeks of Daniel IX, formed part of the 2800 days in the 
preceding chapter, which, as he judged by a natural influence, would 
bring their termination in 1843. This view, said Dr. Hales, is " the 
most ingenious of its class," and he considered it worthy of re- 
publication, in the " Suspector," in 1789, and again in 1796, and 
again, in the " Orthodox Churchman's Magazine," in 1803, and 
afterwards in his great work, the " New Analysis of Chronology," 
vol. II, page 664. 

And hence, the calculations of the people called " Second Adven- 
tists." They looked and confidently expected the dissolution of the 
universe, in 1848. And though they see that nature's laws do not 
fail, yet many of this class are still hoping that these laws may be 
interrupted, and the present material earth burned up ! 



GOOD TIME COMING. 27 

and Bibles, and tracts ; and all the conferences, conventions, 
camp meetings, prayer meetings, and the like ; and all the 
prayer, and the faith of the whole sectarian world, for the last 
six thousand years, have never yet been able to put the least 
perceptible check upon the increase of this class of the human 
family. The presumption would, therefore, seem to be, that 
the race, as such, must sustain some peculiar relation to the 
Divine Father, which has not, as yet, been sufficiently re- 
cognized in the sectarian creeds. Think, here, for one mo- 
ment, and then say if a want so generally felt, more or less, 
by all, shall not be, in some way, provided for. If we make a 
distinction between Religion or the Divine IClement in man, 
and what has passed under the name of Christianity, then it is 
easy to see the truth of the confession made by a distinguished 
clergyman, a few years since, when he said that "Christianity 
had, thus far, proved a failure." But why should we dispute 
about mere words 1 The race is yet undeveloped, not pro- 
gressed very far. It is external, skeptical. The spiritual 
senses are not yet perfected. It is more theoretical than 
philosophical, more intellectual than spiritual, more sectarian 
than liberal. Is there not, in many respects, more slavery 
than freedom, more belief in evil than Infinite Goodness, and 
more respect shown for position and wealth than for reason or 
superior wisdom "? 

And now, because the race had to be born in order to he, 
and, being born, we had to be infants before we could become 
men, does it not follow that when one finds himself approaching 
MANHOOD, that he should " put away childish things V Shall 
we progress in time, and not in space 1 Shall we advance in 
science, and stand still in philosophy 1 Shall we improve in all 
things, except in those faculties that bring us nearer to the 
Divine ? And why, then, (except in so far as we are children,) 
should we be confined to the teachings of one man, or one 
book? And why, (except in so far as we have not yet ad- 
vanced from a state of infancy,) should it be necessary for us 
to argue such questions as these at all 1 

It is said that the Jews, some two thousand years ago, 
expected the advent or development of goodness in some /brm, 
which, Christians of later ages tell us, those same Jews should 
have witnessed in the person and character of Jesus of Naza- 
reth. But is it not plain, that if those ancient Hebrews had 
had correct ideas of the good they anticipated, they would 
have found it in Jesus, as sure as he was the complete fulfil- 
ment of their hopes 1 Hence, we must admit, either that he 
was not what they anticipated, or, if he was, they did not 
know what their anticipations were. And is it any more 
marvelous, that the Christians of the present age should mis- 



28 BOOK OF HUMAN NATURE. 

judge as to the real fulfilment of their hopes, than it was that 
the ancient Jews should do so 1 All, or at least, a vast major- 
ity of the most intelligent minds, whether Christian or Heathen, 
are agreed that about this period in the history of the Race, 
some new and wonderful developments are to be made. And, 
is the long expected good to consist in the destruction of this 
earth, or in the revification of decayed animal forms, or in the 
frustration of nature's laws? Is it not, rather, in the gradual, 
harmonious progression of the Race from infancy to manhood, 
from discord to unity ? 

Contemplating nature, therefore, as a whole, we find that 
she does not go back. All her changes, her so called catas- 
trophes, her storms and earthquakes, but indicate the great 
laws of Association, Progression and Development, which 
have brought about the spiritual era, which we now behold 
not afar off, but as very near. " Prophets and kings desired it 
long, but died without the sight." 

Nature has her alternations, her day and night, cold and 
heat, sleeping and waking, summer and winter, life and' death, 
infancy and manhood. But these alternations make its pro- 
gressions. The vibrations of the pendulum cause the revo- 
lutions in the wheels of the clock, by which its hands are 
carried round the dial, and mark the progress of time. 

As near, therefore, as we advance to that state, where we 
become conscious of manhood, we shall enlarge the sphere of 
our observations. We shall not merely be men in physical 
stature, but our spiritual nature will demand that range of 
activity corresponding with its powers, precisely the same as 
the external body must have air and exercise for its health and 
symmetrical development. 

Tlieories. 

4. If, as we are taught by one of the first principles of Philo- 
sophy, our theories may be made the grounds of practical con- 
clusions, whenever we are able, by them, to account for things 
as they are, then it will be admitted, probably, that just so far 
as the author may have succeeded in this attempt, in the fol- 
lowing Theory of Human Nature, he may be justified in the 
conclusions which follow. If mind, like the phenomena which 
combine to make up the present state of things, have its laws, 
and we find out what those laws are, then the emotions, voli- 
tions, and actions peculiar to human nature, must each have 
their causes, also ; and they may be ascertained and described, 
whenever the mind is sufficiently developed for comprehending 
them. 

When uninformed, man has always been disposed to attribute 
phenomena^ that w^ere new or strange, to supernatural agency. 



NECESSITY OF INVESTIGATION. 29 

But we shall see, that in strict philosophy, one mental result is 
just as supernatural or extraordinary as another ; the only 
difference between what we denominate common and ex- 
traordinary phenomena, is, with the former we are moie fami- 
liar ; and at the same time the latter class may be just as 
often in their occurrence ; but because it may not have come 
in our way to notice them, they seem to us more mysterious, 
and hence, to be attributed to supernatural power. 

Human nature is a system of laws ; and so of the mind. 
When we come to dissect it, as it were, and examine its phe- 
nomena, in the light of its own inherent faculty of wisdom, 
perfectly developed, we shall find what those laws are, and 
how beautifully they all harmonize with every other law in 
nature and the constitution of things. This degree of know- 
ledge is the perfection of the human mind ; and it is for the 
want of it, that men fear investigation. We fear, because we 
we do not know ; and we do not know, because our faculties 
of knowledge are not developed ; and these faculties are not 
developed, because the appropriate laws have not been in 
operation, within and upon us, necessary to bring about that 
result. 

For the want of knowledge, we believe and hope ; and hence 
it is, that we feel the most secure, the most satisfaction, in 
resting upon what we believe to be true. What each one be- 
lieves, he believes because he thinks it true, whether it be so 
or not. Thus, we cling to the views for which we can assign 
no reason at all ; and hence it is, that the mind defends error 
with as much tenacity as it dues truth, whenever error has 
been once received, instead of truth. Men contend for error, 
they suffer for it, fight and die for it ! 

]¥ece§sify of IiiTestigatioii. 

5. Nothing can be more easy of comprehension, than that 
the human mind shrinks from investigation, just in propor- 
tion to the imperfection of its developments. When, therefore, 
we dread the light, and resist all legitimate efforts to find the 
truth in relation to mind, or any thing else, we do, in this very 
way, confess our want of information; and thus is proved (as 
it would seem) the truth of what I have assumed as the true 
philosophy of mind, in the following theory. 

Is it not perfectly self-evident, to the smallest capacity, 
even, that two, or a dozen conflicting views about one and the 
same thing cannot each be right? And, as we each differ 
from the other, if we assume iiifallibility , or, what is the same 
thing in substance, that we cannot be wrong, error must be 
immortal, or exist, at any rate, as long as we do ourselves. 
For, if we err, and refuse investigation, by which alone we 



30 BOOK OF HUMAN NATURE. 

may be enlightened and set right, we must remain in error as 
long as we have an existence ; and how long that may be we 
can determine only from investigation. Whether there be 
another state of existence for man or not, is not a matter of 
universal knowledge ; for, were it so, no human being could 
ever have doubted it ; or, at least, there could not be a class 
of minds who could justly be called heathen, or skeptics, 
because in that case all would have the necessary knowledge to 
induce belief in that fact. And hence the necessity of those 
reasoning faculties in the exercise of which we can determine 
what is true ! 

Competency of HtiiiiaEi Judganeiit* 

C. It is perfectly natural for every sane mind to determine 
what is true or false, in regard to every proposition which is 
brought before it for that purpose. Now, if the mind, when 
suitably developed, be not competent to judge of any given pro- 
position, whether it be true or false, of course there is- an end 
to the matter, and further argument would be useless. Where 
there is no competency there can be no responsibility ; cer- 
tainly, no moral obligation. But, if the mind, when perfectly 
developed, be competent to judge, that competency is exer- 
cised when, after due examination, it receives that which is 
believed to be true, either of mind or the nature and constitu- 
tion of things. 

The largest number of minds, therefore, of every class 
capable of reasoning upon the subject, will agree that it is con- 
sistent and best, all things considered, for each individual to 
use all available means for information, and then to receive or 
reject what the enlightened reason decides to be true or false, 
in relation to every subject which comes within the range of 
human investigation. " Prove all things, — hold fast that which 
is good." But, we can prove nothing without examination, 
and we examine nothing without the faculty of reason. 

True it is, that one may imagine himself led by an enlight- 
ened judgment when he is not; and hence the conditions which 
I have stated (100) for making up a correct judgment upon 
matters which come before the mind for adjudication. 

Hindrances. 

7. Perhaps nothing has tended more to prevent the devel- 
opment of that wisdom by which the mind acquires correct 
views of itself, than the excessive action of those organs de- 
nominated Faith or Marvelousness ; for, just as far as the 
mind is led by these organs, instead of wisdom, it is carried 
into the regions o^ fancy, and from a knowledge of realities. 



hindrances: 81 

But, when evenly balanced and well developed, as we shall 
see, the mind always is led by reason; and hence, in the 
nature of things, it is impossible for such a mind to err essen- 
tially, or to refuse the truth when it is once presented for its 
reception. 

In their original elements, all minds are exactly alike, as all 
are also, in the precise number of their faculties ; however, 
all the elements and faculties are not developed in the same 
degree ; but just so far as they are harmoniously developed in 
each- mind, truth is received in so far as the developments 
are adequate for its comprehension; and hence, if truth be not 
received, or, when perceived, is not understood, the fault is in 
the state of the mind. The faculty of intelligence or reason 
never receives what that same faculty is unable to comprehend. 
Faith and marvelousness may receive any thing ; and the mind 
is safe only in following these organs when they act in har- 
mony with wisdom. And hence it is manifestly unjust to 
charge those whom we believe to be enthusiastic, or deluded, 
with dishonesty in all cases. We should allow all to be 
honest until we are convinced of one of two things : — either 
that they assume what they know to be false, with a design to 
deceive ; or, that they knowingly act contrary to their princi- 
ples or profession, and for a similar purpose. Every human 
being capable of putting forth mental manifestations, may be 
said by another, to be fanatical, or deluded in some way or 
other. We are all in our own way, " believers," or " skep- 
tics ;" for what one believes the other disbelieves, so that it 
would, perhaps, be scarcely possible to describe, or conceive 
of any fact, real or imaginary, which has not been, or is not 
now believed and doubted by different minds the world over ; 
and hence a good maxim for all would be, — " In non-essen- 
tials, liberty ; in essentials, free inquiry ; and in all things, 
charity.''^ 



82 BOOK OF HUMAN NATURE. 



THE DIVmE. 

LOVE, WILL, WISDOM. 



First Can§e. 

8. In the nature of things, there must be an adequate cause 
for every event. Effects must, in all cases, correspond with 
the cause, or causes, that have induced them. And if results 
manifest design, there must have been intelligence in their 
production. Hence, it is manifest, that the essential elements 
constituting- the essence of ihe first producing cause, are three- 
fold : — the evolution and manifestation of existence demon- 
strates Love, which is light and life ; their production demon- 
strate his Will, which is power in motion, procedure, or a 
state of activity ; and the order and forms of existences, adapt- 
ing appropriate means to definite ends, demonstrates his Wis- 
dom. And thus is demonstrated the existence of the Eternal 
Mind or essence ; love, will and wisdom. This mind is, tuas^ 
and always will be : for present motion demonstrates his 
present existence, past motions prove his prior existence, and 
their uniform pj-ogression makes it manifest that he always 
must be, as he always has been, the one all-merciful, all- 
powerful, all-knowing-, from whom has proceeded and who 
now conserves, and who will forever perpetuate the nature and 
constitution of things, in their essence, form and use. 

Iiifiitite ]>esigii. 

9. Whatever tends to develop life, according to the design 
of the Infinite Love, is good, and as far as it corresponds with 
his wisdom, or method of carrying out his design, it is true. 
The greatest good, or the highest use, therefore, of all, is to 
have each element in nature developed in perfect harmony. 
Hence, those associations, that knowledge, and all those in- 
fluences brought to bear on human organisms, are good, which 
tend to develop the elements of our nature in perfect harmony. 
Those which tend to discord, to carry one element or faculty 
out of proportion, beyond another, are evil. 



PRIMARY PRINCIPLES. 83 

A correct estimate, therefore, of goodness, cannot be made 
without taking into view the design of the Infinite in the 
development of man. If we suppose the Divine Love, Will 
and Wisdom must, necessarily, have harmonized in the design 
which resulted in the development of man, then it follows that 
the greatest happiness of each must finally result as a matter 
of course. For, if the Divine be that Love which desires the 
greatest happiness in giving life, and that Wisdom which uses 
the most appropriate means for securing what his love desires, 
and that Will which is the power to use those means by 
which his love is gratified, then, we infer, that all is good in 
the mineral, vegetable, animal apd spiritual worlds, which 
tend to carry out the Divine design in the physical and spiritual 
man. And all is true, only so far as they correspond with 
that design. Evil, therefore, is a term which applies to the 
imperfect degrees in which we find the physical and mental 
systems developed in each case. An infant may be a perfect 
child, but an imperfect man ; and when compared with man- 
hood, infancy is certainly an evil. In the infant, the life ele- 
ment is developed long before the wisdom faculty makes its 
appearance at all, except as we see its motions in instinct. 
But compared with an animal, or no existence at all, our in- 
fantile existence is not an evil, but a positive good. Hence 
the appliances of food, air, and clothing, by which its existence 
is conserved and developed into manhood. And manhood is 
evil, when compared with that spiritual state, where the per- 
fect man has been developed into an angel, and advanced to 
the spheres above the piere human. And infants all may 
be said to be, indeed, in more than one sense, if we have 
not yet advanced sufficiently to see that the race is progressive^ 
not as individuals merely from a state of infancy to manhood, 
but also from a state of ignorance to one of more goodness, 
more truth, as a race. 

£!iicls, €au§es, !Effect§. 

10. Order and Form are wisdom, and wisdom is design, the 
adaptation of appropriate means to the accomplishment of 
certain effects. This law comprehends and makes the parts 
correspond to the whole ; it produces, pervades, and governs 
universal existence ; and, by it, all things are evolved and 
subsist, from the one First Cause. He exists in himself; all 
else IS from him. Hence, this law of design, comprising the 
Order and Forms of things, comprehending Ends, and the 
Causes by which they are envolved, is universal and eternal, 
determining whatever enters into the nature and compositions 
of matter, and the Order and Forms of its developments, with 



84 BOOK OF HUMAN XATURE. 

infinite reason, and mathematical or corresponding degrees. 
Tlie self-existent essence is above and heyond human ideas of 
time and space ; but the wisdom of his love, or the motions of 
his will, by which existences are evolved, and derived from 
him, come within the comprehension of time and space ; and, 
consequently, all motions are mathematical, and must accord- 
ingly correspond with the Order and Form, in the wisdom of 
the first producing cause. 

fhe I>ivine Inmost. 

11. If we contemplate Human Nature as a system, and 
trace its history backward, we shall find that it has always 
acknowledged its Author : — 

I. In the sense of dependence on superior goodness, power 
and knowledge, which has always been manifested in prayer, 
faith, and forms of religious worship. It is not unreasonable 
to infer that this has come from the Inmost recesses of man's 
nature, from the Divine Element, whose developments have 
suggested the term of " Religious Animal," which has been 
applied to him. 

The body, so to speak, is not the life, or soul. Nature is 
not God, only as it is his vs^ork. It is God's external Form ; 
the garment with which he has clothed himself, and of which 
he is, was, and always must be the one, all pervading inmost 
soul. He is all, and in ail ; the inmost of each universe ; the 
inmost of each world ; the inmost of each kingdom, and of 
each sphere, and of each individual, and of each element, and 
each particle, always and everywhere, throughout universal 
space. 

II. This will be further manifest, if we consider the suffer- 
ings which mortals have undergone themselves, or inflicted 
upon others, actually or theoretically, for no other purpose than 
to gratify their love of the Divine. The different forms of 
sacrifice among the Jews, the Hindoos and savage nations, 
all tend to prove this Religious Element as inherent in man's 
inmost nature. Nor among the ignorant savages alone, have 
these bloody sacrifices been found, even of human beings ; but 
the most enlightened nations of the earth, si\\\ feel the want of 
the death of a human being, in order to appease "an angry 
God," and atone for the sin of that very inmost soul in man's 
nature, which is itself Divine ! Look at the shaker, denying 
the instincts of the nature he has derived from God himself; 
or the Hindoo, whose heroism fastens and confines him to the 
top of a style, twenty feet from the ground, where he remains 
day and night, for as many years. All this is done from love 
to God. The love Element is strong ; but, the wisdom Prin- 



DEGREES. ^5 

ciple being feebly developed, the religious devotee perverts his 
instincts, scourges his own body, and inflicts upon himself 
pains and penalties, which he vainly imagines render him more 
acceptable to the Divine.* 

!>octriiie of Degrees. 

13. 1. Forms appertain to substance; for any supposable 
substance of which no form can be predicated, has no ex- 
istence. 

2. Series are made up of forms. We find these for ex- 
ample, in the processes of vegetation by which bodies are con- 
stituted of various coatings, as the pith, the wood, and bark.f 

3. Degrees. Three forms make one series, and three series 
make one degree ; and these are of two kinds. 

1. Degrees of altitude, or such motions as ascend or descend 
from a given centre ; and 2d, degrees of latitude, or such mo- 
tions as extend in any given direction, without regard to 
height or depth ; and thus, all things included in matter and 
mind, extend or ascend, and descend in forms, series, de- 
grees, and spheres. For example : — 1st, The atmosphere. 
2nd, Water. 3rd, The earth, life. 1st, Vegetable. 2nd, 
Animal. 3rd, Men. And the nisxt develops, 1st, The soul. 
2nd, Mind. 3rd, Spirit. And thus it is, that we shall find 
this elementary, threefold, or triune, pervading all Nature in 
its essence, forms and uses — from the first cause to the last 
result which comes within the range of human investigation. 
Hence it is manifest, that a clear perception of the doctrine of 
design lies at the foundation of all correct reasoning in re- 
spect to Nature ; as, without this, the mind is not in a state to 
appreciate the true relation between causes and their eflfects. 
And, on this subject the truth has been so well expressed by 
others, that I readily avail myself of their assistance. 

Importaaice of tliis Knowledge. 

13. The knowledge of degrees, is, as it were, the key to 
open the causes of things and enter into them ; without it 
scarcely any thing of cause can be known ; for, without it the 
objects and subjects of both worlds appear so general, as to 

* One of the best works, in our language, on Theology, is that 
entitled : "Discourse of Eeligion," by Theodore Parker. 

t See Macrocosm, or, the Universe without, by William Fishbough, 
in which this trinity is argued at length : — 

" Nature is a harp of seven times seven strings, 
On which, by God's own hand is gently played 
The ever varied music of the spheres." 



86 BOOK OF HUMAN NATURE. 

seem to have nothing but what is seen with the eye; when, 
nevertheless, this respectively to the ihings which lie inte- 
riorly concealed is as one to thousands, yea to myriads. The 
interior things which lie hid^ can by no means be discovered, 
unless degrees be understood ; for exterior things advance to 
interior things, and these to inmost by degrees ; not by conti- 
nuous degrees, but by discrete degrees. Decrements or de- 
creasings from grosser to finer, or from denser to rarer ; or 
rather increments and increasings, from finer to grosser, or 
from rarer to denser, like that of light to shade, or of heat to 
cold, are called continuous degrees. But, discrete degrees are 
entirely different ; they are in the relation of prior, posterior, 
and postreme ; or of end, cause, and effect. They are called 
discrete degrees, the prior is by itself; the posterior by itself, 
and the postreme by itself; but, still, taken together they make 
one. The atmospheres, which are called aether, and air, from 
the highest to the lowest, or from the sun to the earth, are dis- 
criminated into such degrees ; and are as simples, the congre- 
gates of these simples, and again the congregates of these 
congregates, which, taken together, are called a composite. 
These last degrees are discrete, because they exist distinctly ; 
and they are understood by Aegxees o^ altitude ; but the former 
degrees are continuous, because they continually increase, 
and they are understood by degrees of latitude. 

All and singular the things which exist in the spiritual and 
natural worlds, co-exist at once from discrete and continuous 
degrees, or from degrees of altitude and degrees of latitude. 
That dimension which consists of discrete degrees is called 
altitude, and that which consists of continuous degrees is called 
latitude : their situation relatively to sight does not change 
their denomination. Without a knowledge of these degrees, 
nothing can be known of the difference between the three 
heavens, or, of the difference between the love and wisdom of 
the angels there, or of the difference between the heat and 
light in which they are, or of the difference between the at- 
mospheres which surround and contain them. Moreover, 
without a knowledge of these degrees, nothing can be known 
of the interior faculties of the mind in men ; or, therefore of 
their state as to reformation ; or of the difference of the ex- 
terior faculties which are of the body, as well of angels as of 
men ; and nothing at all of the difference between spiritual 
and natural, or therefore of correspondence ; yea, or of any 
difference of life between men and beasts, or of the difference 
between the more perfect and the imperfect beasts ; or of the 
differences between the former of the vegetable kingdom, and 
between the materials that compose the mineral kingdom. 
Whence jit may appear that those who are ignorant of these 



DEGREES. 87 

degrees cannot from any judgment see causes ; they only see 
effects, and judge of causes from them, which is done for the 
most part by an induction continuous- with effects, when, 
nevertheless, causes do not produce effects by continuity, but 
discretely, for a cause is one thing', and an effect another ; 
there is a difference as between prior and posterior, or, as 
between the thing forming and the thing formed.* 

IllustratioBis. 

14. It is of the first importance that we should be able, 
fully to comprehend what is meant, in the use of the terms 
Ends, Causes, Effects ; as also Forms, Series and Degrees : — 

The essential characteristic of continuous degrees, is their 
increase or decrease, from a low degree to a high degree, or 
from a less degree to a greater degree, of the same thing, and 
vice versa; B,s, for instance, from darkness to light, by in- 
appreciable increase, or from heat to cold by imperceptible 
decrease. Darkness thus becoming light by regular increment 
or continuity of the same thing, and heat thus becoming cold 
by continuity or regular decrease of the same thing. So, 
also of bitter, or a low degree of sweet, becoming, by increase, 
sweet, or a higher degree of the same thing. So, of short, by 
continuity, becoming long ; low becoming, by continuity, high; 
dull, sharp ; thick to thin ; gross to fine ; weak to strong, &c., &c. 
These are instances of continuous degrees in the physical and 
sensational world, and, like continuous degrees, obtain in the 
intelligent and emotional worlds ; as, for instances, ignorance, 
or a low degree of knowledge, becoming, by regular increase 
or continuity, intelligence, or a higher degree of knowledge ; 
or evil, which is only a low degree of good, becoming, by 
regular increment, a greater good. Thus, in the sensational 
world, light, by continuity, shades off into darkness ; heat, into 
cold, &c.; and you cannot put down your finger on the place 
where the one ceases and tho other commences. So, in the 
intelligent world, knowledge shades off into ignorance ; and, 
in the emotional world, good shades off into evil. In all which 
instances, the one differs from the other only by continuity of 
the same thing. The same low degree of heat, which will 
freeze a man to death, to speak antithetically, increased in de- 
gree, will burn him to death. It is a question of quantity^ 
and relates to, or involves space, and not of quality or time. — 
There is no essential or specific difference, further than in the 
amount of the same thing. Our physical organism is construct- 
ed for, and adapted to, certain continuous degrees of the ele- 
ments and objects around us, and it is the criterion which de- 

* Swedenhorg'8 D. L. and W., 184, 185. 



88 BOOK OF HUMAN NATUEE. 

termines what is hot and what is cold, what is darkness and 
what is light, what is large and what is small ; and if you 
alter this criterion, you alter our appreciation of those degrees. 
For instance, if you augment our vision, the light of darkness 
will blind us, and mole hills will be mountains. If you increase 
our sense of smell, we "die of a rose in aromatic pain." If you 
increase our sense of hearing, we are " deafened by the music of 
the spheres," &c., &c. So, also, our moral and spiritual organ- 
isms are standards of what is knowledge and what is ignorance, 
or of what is good and what is evil ; and, as the standard de- 
velops and perfects, our appreciation of those degrees alters. 

It is more difficult to perceive and understand the distinctive 
characteristic of discrete degrees. They are different, se- 
parate and distinct, and are connected only by relation, or 
conjoined only by correspondence, or the law of analogy. 
They occupy towards each other the relations of end, cause 
and effect, or prior, posterior and postreme. As continuous 
degrees relate to space and quantity, so discrete degrees relate 
to time and quality, and are also denominated first, middle 
and last, and inmost, interior and external. 

This trinal order prevails in each and all things that exist, 
inasmuch as each thing has an end or inmost, /rom which it 
is ; a cause .or interior, ly which it is ; and an external, ultimate 
or effect, in which it is. Hence, it is evident, that the one of 
those degrees is not, nor cannot become the other by con- 
tinuity — increase or decrease — but by the relations of prior, 
posterior and postreme, or inmost, interior and outmost. The 
end can never become the cause, nor the cause the effect, by 
increase or decrease, as darkness becomes light, or heat be- 
comes cold, by increase and decrease, any more than the in- 
most can, by increase, become the outmost, or the first, by 
increase, become the last, or the centre, by increase, become 
the circumference. These degrees are relations that cannot 
be altered by continuity. It is very true, that the cause 
is in the effect, and the end in the cause, as the middle ex- 
panse is in the circumference, and the centre in the middle 
expanse — all existing and subsisting together in the effect. 
Hence, it is, that those degrees are called simultaneous degrees, 
as contradistinguished to successive degrees, or degrees by 
continuity, which do not exist together simultaneously, but 
from each other successively. 

The great creation, and every part of it, is thus discreted 
into this trinal order of degrees. There is a sphere of ends — 
the inmost or celestial heavens ; a sphere of causes — the 
middle or spiritual heavens ; and a sphere of effects — the ma- 
terial universe. In God is this trinity. His Divine Love, the 
End of ends, His Inmost, fmm which are all things ; His 



DEGREES. 89 

Divine Wisdom, the Cause of causes, hy which are all things ; 
and His operative or energizing sphere, or Holy Spirit, the 
effect, in wlTich are all things. Man being a representative 
of God. and the universe, has this trinal arrangement within 
him. His love or will is his inmost, or end, from which his 
intelligence, the cause, hy means of which, and his action, the 
effect in which he is. 

Let me illustrate. Take for instance, the mineral — say a 
diamond. It has motion, and it has discreted from that mo- 
tion, an order of arrangement of its parts, or mode hy which 
that motion proceeds and is determined into the angular form 
of the diamond. Thus in the diamond is motion, the end, and 
the order or manner hy which that motion proceeds. Again, 
to bring an example from the vegetable kingdom, take the 
leaf. It has life, or an inmost vitalizing essence, (which 
typifies the Divine Love) and a form or order by which that 
life proceeds, and is elaborated in the external, (symbolizing 
the Divine Wisdom) and the leaf formed, the ultimate or. 
effect, (corresponding to the material creation.) Here it is 
seen that the life or essence of the leaf is one thing ; the form, 
order, or mode by which it grows, another ; and the leaf itself, 
another. They are distinct and separate, and conjoined only 
by correspondence ; and yet in the complex, they form a unit, 
just as the love, intelligence and actions of a man are distinct 
and separate, yet conjoined by correspondence forming a per- 
son ; and just as the universe, celestial, spiritual, and natural, 
are separate and distinct, yet conjoined by correspondence, 
forming a unit. The motion in the diamond goes forth hy its 
order of arrangement into the angular form of the diamond ; 
life in the vegetable goes forth hy its mode or manner of pro- 
ceeding or elaborating into the leaf, apple, &c. ; the love or 
desire of man goes forth hy his intelligence into action. And 
the Divine Love, the inmost of all things, goes forth hy the 
Divine Wisdom or Providence (which is the same thing,) into 
external material nature, the great action of God ! 

But if this trine of discrete degrees is in all things from 
the least to the greatest — if in the leaf and in each fibre of the 
leaf — in each composite love, in each single thought, and in 
each particular or intermediate action — where is the sphere or 
plane of operation for the continuous degrees'? I will tell you. 
They are in each discrete degree ; and then again, a series of 
discrete degrees form the continuous degrees. And to illustrate 
this, 1 will give you some examples. My love or desire 
to relieve the sufferer, may, in its inception, have been 
most inappreciably faint — so weak as scarcely to make me 
conscious of the emotion. But it increases hy continuity — the 
same specific sentiment becoming by regular increment 



40 BOOK OF HUMAN NATURE. 

stronger and greater, until reaching- a certain point, it changes 
or discretes itself into a new form, namely — my intelligence, 
which again in its dim and obscure beginning, may be inade- 
quate to the satisfying my love, and it brightens and clears by 
regular increase, to a point where it plainly discovers to me 
and furnishes the means of ultimating my love, when it 
changes or discretes itself into action. A man may feel a de- 
sire to act, and yet it may not be strong enough to move him 
until it is increased sufficiently in degree, when it discretes 
itself into thought on the subject ; and again his thought or 
intelligence may be confused and obscure — may not inform 
him of the way or means sufficiently clear and unequivocally 
to justify action until it is increased in degree so as to point 
clearly to the means, when it discretes itself into action. 
Again, the life in the seed or germ of the vegetable, may lie 
dormant for ages, until it is fomented and increased by conti- 
nuity, when it assumes an orderof arrangement of its particles, 
which order amplifies and enlarges until it discretes itself into 
the vegetable formed. Thus you will see that each discrete 
degree is formed of an indefinite number or series of conti- 
nuous degrees, from a less to a greater, by increase, until 
they change or discrete their order of existence into a new 
form. The one does not become the other by continuity, but 
by discreting — the continuous degrees proceeding until discre- 
tion takes place. How and why they thus discrete, I am 
unable to say. But again, what are continuous degrees 
formed of? I answer, of a series of discrete degrees of the 
same kind. For instance, light is formed of an indefinite num- 
ber of separate particles, each discreted from the other, yet all 
alikef which can be increased until darkness becomes light, 
&c. Thus ice is discreted from water, and yet by increasing 
the amount of heat in it continuously, it discretes itself into 
water. And again, by increasing the heat of the water, it dis- 
cretes itself into steam. In like maimer are the atmospheres 
discreted from each other. Hence, continuity is a series of 
discreted or distinct individualities increasing until they dis- 
crete into a new order — give birth to or develop a new species, 
which increases and runs again in continued series, until 
it again discretes or changes into still another order or 
species, &c. 

Now development, or the law of perpetual growth, proceeds 
according to this two-fold order. AH things thus develop by 
continuity, or series, to a certain degree, when they discrete 
or change into a new order or species distinct from the pre- 
ceding one, just as the end transfuses itself continuously into 
the cause, until it discretes itself from it, and just as the cause 
transfuses itself continuously into the effect forming it, until it 



DEGREES, 41 

discretes itself from it. We will now illustrate this order by- 
some examples. The mineral kingdom which is composed of 
an indefinite series of discreted particles, or individuals, grows 
or develops by attenuation or continuity, until it develops or 
discretes itself into a low form or order of the vegetable king- 
dom, which is a new order of existence developed from it ; the 
one not being the other by continuity, but by discretion. So 
again the vegetable kingdom proceeded or grew continuously, 
by long series and groups of series, during many geological 
ages, until it produced or discreted into the lowest form of 
animal or sensational life, which again grew and perfected in 
continued series, until it discreted into intelligent existence. 
Hence, as Emerson says, " every ultimate fact Is but the 
beginning of a new series." For instance, in the vegetable 
kingdom, the potato goes round in a series of growth or deve- 
lopment, continuously until it passes into a new species. So 
the animal develops and perfects continuously through a long 
series of generations, until it gives birth to a new species, dis- 
crete from the former.* 

Now, universality is a quality of all the laws of celestial, spir- 
itual and material existence, and to them there are and can be 
no exceptions. There is no miracle, but phenomena or law, 
the universality of which we do not yet comprehend, and no 
mystery, but ignorance. Mystery is only a name given to the 
hazy and obscure unknown which yet lies beyond the dim and 
confused vision. The same law which governs and controls 
the planetary system, carrying forward the planets in their 
orbits, around the central sun, governs and controls the econo- 
my of a drop of water, or one of the little glands of our physi- 
cal system, for they have their centripetal and centrifugal 
powers, by which they excrete and secrete a magnetic centre 
and electric circumference. The same law which is the wis- 
dom of the spiritual heavens, is plenary in my intelligence ; 
and the same law, which is the love principle of the inmost or 
celestial angels, is universal in the heart of man. Moreover, 
when we come to consider things interiorly, or according to 
their spiritual and celestial uses, abstracted from space and 

* Those who wish to study this two-fold order of development 
more iu detail, will find it fully treated of in the " Vestiges of Crea- 
tion," although the author does not appear to have known that he 
was but applying and illustrating Swedenborg's " Doctrine of De- 
grees." The continuous degree of Swcdenborg is Fourier's law of 
the series, and his discrete degree Fourier's law of the group or spe- 
cies. We see this order of development in the whole liistory of the 
human race, and it would be highly interesting to trace it out and ex- 
hibit how one form,of social order continued in a series until it 
develops a new order of social life. How one dispensation passed in a 
series, until it gave birth to a new dispensation, &c. &c. 



43 BOOK OF HUMAN NATURE. 

time, or, which is the same things quantity and succession, we 
find the uses or spiritual principle of the organs, fibres, 
viscera, &c., of the animalcule, by correspondence, the same 
as the uses of the viscera, functions, &c., of the Grand 
Universal Man. Great or small, first or last, are not condi- 
tions of their existence, and are no way. implicated in their in- 
terior being-. Spiritually, end, cause, and effect, are as perfect 
and omnipotent in the leaf as in the whole " complex of things,'' 
just as a legal principle is as much involved in a suit when 
but five dollars are in controversy, as in a suit when the amount 
in dispute is fifty thousand dollars. You can't predicate great 
or small, Jirst or last of it. In like manner, our love and in- 
telligence are states of our spiritual being, and have nothing to 
do with, and are above, and beyond, and without time and 
space. So God, the pure abstract Divine Love and Wisdom, 
is wholly independent of time and space, and the ideas of size, 
place, past, present and future, do not at all attach to His 
proper Being. Therefore, discrete degrees, spiritually con- 
sidered, are the same everywhere. And if God is the Inmost 
of all things, centralized or focalized divinity, a Man, personal, 
human, divine, appearing in ordinary spiritual stature and parts, 
then is He discreted from His celestial, spiritual, and material 
universes, and conjoined with them only by correspondence. 
For, if by continuity, then the conclusion is irresistible, that 
God and Nature are identical, which won't satisfy our de- 
votional instincts^ tendencies and wants. Let me illustrate 
this greatest spiritual truth by some examples. Were we to 
look at our solar system from myriad millions of miles, it 
would appear to us a conglobated or solid mass, a unit, radiat- 
ing its light and heat into the depths of space. But when we 
near it, it resolves into planets and satellites ; and when we 
still near it, it discretes itself into concentric atmosphere, then 
into concentric strata, until we reach an inmost centre, the 
brief focus of all its light and heat, which we can, as it were, 
grasp in our hand — which centre is discreted from the whole 
vast complex. So, the Man-God, the centre of the spiritual 
universe, abstracted from time and space, is thus discreted 
from His grand universe, and yet instantly and constantly up- 
holds it, and is immanent in every part of it, by His Holy 
Spirit or sphere. Again, I radiate a sphere to an indefinite 
extent around me, which, was it perceptible by your senses, 
would make me a giant. This sphere is discreted from my 
body, and is not properly me. Furthermore, my body, which 
is in space, is discreted from my spirit, which is not in space, 
and yet my body is not properly me ; and again, my love, or 
emotional nature — the central me, or inmost, of which you 
cannot predicate size or duration, is discreted from my spiritual 



DEGKEES. 43 

form, in which it af pears ; and it is of this inmost or central 
me that manhood or personality is properly predicable. In 
like manner is God the Central Manhood of llie universe, the 
Inmost Personality, Humanity and Divinity, discreted from 
all thinfTS else. What a theology is this ! In a subsequent 
article, I vi^ill show how this Divinity is united with the human- 
ity of all earths and all times, constituting Him, in the largest 
sense, a worshipful Being.* 

* W. S. Courtney, Spirit World, Vol. 3, No. 10. 



44 BOOK OF HUMAN NATURE. 



NATURE. 

SUBSTANCE, AGGREGATION, UNIVERSE. 



Matter. 

15. Matter, is the substance evolved from the' Divine Ele- 
ments, from which all systems of worlds and their inhabitants 
have been constituted and made. This substance corresponds* 
with the first producing cause, and hence it contains the in- 
herent inmost qualities and powers, for the development of all 
forms of existence, which, in their elements, must also cor- 
respond with the elements constituting the essence of the 
Divine Original. Matter is developed in corresponding forms, 
series, degrees and spheres. 

We are accustomed to use the term matter, to signify only 
that which is cognizable to one or more of our external senses. 
But, as we progress in our knowing faculties, we find that, if 
we use this term as synonymous with entity, essence, being or 
substance, it is not inappropriately applied to objects which we 
cannot examine directly with any one of our external senses. 
We can form no consistent idea of any being without form, 
and form appertains to substance, or matter. Strictly speak- 
ing, therefore, the whole of Nature, and its Author, may be 
included in the terms substance and motion. These terms 
cannot be used synonymously, though, indeed, one may nevei 
exist without the other. 

Heat. 

16. We next look for the elementary constituents oi matter. 
And, as Form appertains to the cause of its evolutions, so, we 
find, the order in which these elements are arranged. Hence 
we say, the^r^^ element in matter is heat, which corresponds 
to love, or light and life. It is inherent : constituting its mole- 
cules, it evolves their mechanical powers, it makes and deter- 
mines their chemical relations. 



MOTION— LIGHT, ETC, 46 



Motion. 

17. The next element in order, is power, which is motion 
or activity, and corresponds with will or procedure. In what- 
ever form matter is manifested, it is always in motion, for 
without motion, as we have said, matter could have no form, 
and consequently no existence. 

Eiiglit. 

18. The next element in order in matter is light, corres- 
ponding to wisdom. It is a constitutional element, (threefold, 
red, yellow, blue,) developed by heat ; consequently heat, mo- 
tion, and light, constitute the mathematical and chemical laws 
which enter into and make the nature and constitution of all 
things.* And thus, we perceive, how it is, that Form and 
Order, correspond, in the arrangements of Nature. 

Kiiig^ctoins. 

19. As the laws of chemical affinity or repulsion are inher- 
ent in matter, it follows that these motions must appertain to 
all Forms, Series, Degrees and Spheres as such ; so that one 
may be said to tend toward, or to be attracted by another. 
The lower tend to and develop the higher, and in this sense, 
the higher attract the lower ; and hence it is, that each one is 
attracted or repelled, according to the relation (above or be- 
iow,) which it sustains to another. 

Matter, Life, Mind and Spirit, are developed in threefold 
degrees ; so that, when its motions and forms reach the third 
or higher degree, which correspond with its original ele- 
ments, or with the elements constituting the Divine Essence, 
it then progresses to another ; and thus Forms, Series, De- 
grees, Spheres and Kingdoms, are each developed in extend- 
ing and ascending and descending Degrees, till the whole 
forms one universe of Matter and Mind. As motion is pro- 
gressive, so are all its Forms in each Degree and Sphere. Its 
first associations were threefold, and hence the angular in the 
formation of minerals or crystallization, and this contained the 
germ of all the succeeding. The third Degree is the perfec- 
tion of the two preceding. The angular in the third, or high- 
est degree, develops the circular or the lowest form of life, 

* A distinguished chemist of this country. Prof. Johnson, is report- 
ed in the papers to have stated, ' ' that there is, in the sunbeam, not 
only a ray of ligJit and heat, but also, a chemical property, or ray be- 
sides, and which varies at different seasons of the year, and different 
latitudes." 



46 BOOK OF HUMAN NATUKE. 

which begins tho vegetable kingdom. Ascending by the same 
scale in this Sphere to its highest or perfect Degree, the mo- 
tions become spiral, and thus animal life is developed ; first, in 
its lowest forms, and these ascend by the same mathematical 
laws through various series and Degrees, till they reach the 
vertical or spiritual. 

1. The Mineral Kingdom. 

20. 1. The Angular. 2. Multi-angular. 3. Perfected 
Multi- Angular. And thus is constituted a distinct Sphere or 
Kingdom of mineral formations ; th^ most perfect or highest 
of whose forms evolve, 

2. The Vegetable Kingdom. 

21. 1. The circular, and this produces porosity. 2. The 
ascending circular, and thus is evolved and circulated the nu- 
tritive fluid. 3,. The progressive, or perfected progressive 
circular. And this comprehends all forms of vegetable life, 
and thus is constituted one vegetable kingdom, from the high- 
est forms of which are evolved, 

3. The Animal Kingdom. 

22. 1. The spiral, from the highest forms below. 2. The 
ascending spiral. 3. The progressive, or perfected spiral ; 
and thus the animal kingdom becomes Individualized, so that 
although the forms change or alternate, the kingdom, as such, 
continues indestructible ; and its highest or perfected forms co7'- 
respond in their individualization with the individualized king- 
doms which are below ; and thus man becomes individualized, 
a sensuous, conscious, intelligent existence, whose elements 
can never be annihilated, because he is the perfection of mat- 
ter and motion, and hence, from the animal, he ascends to 

The Celestial. 

23; 1. The vertical from the perfected spiral; and these 
motions and corresponding forms evolve feeling, sensation, 
consciousness. 2. The progressive vertical or mental ; the 
soul, mind, spirit. 3. The perfected progressive vertical or 
spiritual ; reason, knowledge, intuition. And thus it is, that 
geometrical progression is the inherent and constitutional law 
of matter and mind. 



LAW. 47 



LAW. 

ASSOCIATION, PROGRESSION, DEVELOPMENT. 



Mineral, Organic, Moral* 

24. The same mathematical motions which have evolved 
the planets, develop and govern this earth and all its produc- 
tions, in perfect correspondence vi^ith the goodness^ power and 
intelligence of the one great first cause, in extending and 
ascending degrees, and thus is developed the mineral, vege- 
table and animal kingdoms, each by its own appropriate mo- 
tions or laws. 

1. — Physical or Mineral. 

These embrace the phenomena of the earth without life, 
such as gravitation and the magnetic forces. Man is a ma- 
terial being, developed from matter, which is controlled by 
these laws ; and hence it is that he is injured by fire, water, 
lightning, &c., precisely as if he had no mind or moral nature 
at all. But these motions develop, 

2. — Organic Laws. 

Such as constitute life, both vegetable and animal. These 
develop organisms^ which alternate and go through regular- 
degrees of growth and decay. They are invariable^ and oper- 
ate only in developing and perpetuating organic life in general, 
and species, in forms, series, degrees and spheres. And from 
this kingdom is evolved, 

3. — The Moral or Mental, 

or such laws as relate to intelligent beings. In addition to the 
intelligence common to animals, man possesses Mdsdom, or 
organs whose functions enable him to distinguish between right 
and wrong, and dispose him to acts of benevolence and wor- 
ship ; and hence the laws according to which the higher facul- 
ties of his mind must be exercised in order to answer the end 
of his existence. Each of these degrees of laws operate inde- 



48 BOOK OF HUMAN NATURE. 

pendently of the others, and hence it is that all men, both good 
and bad, suffer in proportion as one or the other of these laws 
are disobeyed or fulfilled, and from which we deduce the great 
law of design^ so apparent in the development ■> conservation 
and constitution of things^ and by which man is made con- 
scious of pleasure and of pain. But for his susceptibility to 
pain, he could not become conscious of violating law ; when, 
therefore, these laws subject him to a state of suffering, they 
do in this very manner secure for him the greatest good which 
his nature is capable of enjoying. 

Responsibility. 

25. Mental or moral power is co-existent with mental or 
moral obligation, and both are conditioned on the development 
of love and wisdom. Mental law is in perfect harmony with 
physical and organic law, and the greatest good is secured 
when each of these laws are obeyed. Duties to the Deity are 
conditioned on the relations we sustain to Him ; duties to 
country, family, and neighbors, are conditioned upon the rela- 
tions we sustain to each, and the relations themselves are 
traceable to the developments of love and wisdom, which dis- 
pose us and show us how to do the greatest amount of good 
to the greatest number of persons — it is then that man enjoys 
the greatest satisfaction of which his nature is susceptible, and 
best answers the great end of his existence. 

And hence it is, that this law of physical, organic, and 
moral, responsibility, pervades all bodies, all organisms, all 
individualities, all spheres, kingdoms and universes throughout 
the government of God. The pebble thrown into the air, 
holding a peculiar relation to this earth, comes back to it 
again. The earth holding a peculiar relation to the sun, con- 
tinues its obedience to that luminary ; as the sun himself does 
to the greater centre around which he revolves. And, cor- 
Tesponding with this universal law of gravitation, as it has 
been called, which is inherent in all physical bodies, is that 
moral law, still higher, which binds mind to mind, sphere to 
sphere, from the smallest (lowest) to the highest, and which it 
is as impossible to set aside or evade, as it is to change the 
nature and constitution of things. 

" For clearness' sake, the natural and personal obligation to 
keep the law of God as my conscience declares it, I will call 
duty ; the conventional and official obligation to comply with 
some custom, keep some statute, or serve some special interest, 
I will call business. Here then are two things — my natural 
and personal duty, my conventional and official business. 
Which of the two shall give way to the other,— personal duty, 
or official business ? Let it be remembered that I am a man 



RESPONSIBILITY. 49 

first of all, and all else that I am is but a modification of my 
manhood, which makes me a clergyman, a fisherman, or a 
statesman ; but the clergy, the fish, and the state are not to 
strip me of my manhood. They are valuable in so far as 
they serve my manhood, not as it serves them. My oflScial 
business as clergyman, fisherman, or statesman, is always 
beneath my personal duty as man. In case of any conflict 
between the two, the natural duty ought to prevail and carry 
the day before the official business, for the natural duty repre- 
sents the permanet law of God, the absolute right. Justice, the 
balance point of all interests, while the official business repre- 
sents only the transient conventions of men, some partial in- 
terest ; and beside, the man who owes the personal duty is 
immortal, while the officer who performs the official business, 
is but for a time. 

*' At death, the man is tried by the Justice of God, for the 
deeds done, and character attained for his natural duty ; but 
he does pot enter the next life as a clergyman with his sur- 
plice and prayer-book, or a fisherman with his angles and net, 
nor yet as a statesman with his franking privileges and title of 
honorable and Member of Congress. The officer dies of a 
vote or a fever. The man lives forever. From the relation 
between a man and his occupation, it is plain, in general, that 
all conventional and official business is to be overruled by 
natural personal duty. This is the great circle drawn by God, 
and discovered by conscience, which girdles my sphere, in- 
cluding all the smaller circles, and itself included by none of 
them. The law of God has eminent domain everywhere, — 
over the private passions of Oliver and Charles, the special 
interests of Carthage and of Rome, over all customs, all offi- 
cial business, all precedents, all human statutes, all treaties 
between Judas and Pilate, or England and France, over all the 
conventional affairs of one man or mankind. My own con- 
science is to declare that law for me, yours for you, and is 
before all private passions, or public interests, the decisions of 
majorities, and a world full of precedents. You mayjresign 
your office, and escape its obligations, forsake your country 
and owe it no allegiance, but you cannot move out of the do- 
minions of God, nor escape where conscience has not eminent 
domain.*" 

Pain. 

26. It is because the physical^ organic and moral laws are 
independent of each other, and because they are universal^ and 
invariable in their application, as we have seen, that man or 

* Theodore Parkfer. 
8 



50 BOOK OF HUMAN NATURE. 

animals suffer^ for, when there is any want of conformity to 
either of these laws, suffering is the unavoidable and neces- 
sary consequence, and thus the greatest good of the greatest 
number is infallibly secured, in the very nature of man, and 
the constitution of things. 

Pain, therefore, is an over excitement of the centrifugal mo- 
tions of the organism. (52, 53.) The eye is pained by too 
much light ; the sense of hearing is often destroyed by too 
much sound, and the sense of feeling becomes painful by the 
prick of a needle, which excites those motions more than by 
a severe pressure from an obtuse surface, which produces no 
mechanical irritation. (27, 53.) So, if you run, or make any 
mental or physical exertion which excites those exclusive mo- 
tions of the nutritive fluid beyond the motions of breathing and 
digesting, by which that fluid is supplied, the exhaustion be- 
comes disagreeable. But, if the excitement of any one sense 
be just enough to bring about its natural development, it is, in 
that case, pleasant ; and the pleasure is just in proportion to 
the approach of the organ excited, to the perfection of its de- 
gree or sphere. 

Clieiiiical I^aw^s. 

27. 1. It is a law o^ chemistry, that the same results do not 
follow when the same elements are merely united in the same 
ratio ; the same properties result only when the elements are 
the same, and their particles are arranged with mathematical 
exactness in the same manner.* 

2. Heat evolves motion. All motion is mathematical, and 
must be in a straight line, unless there be two forces, one of 
which interferes with the other, and that makes an angle. ^ 
Hence, all motion must be mathematical. And, as all the 
forms oi motion in space are resolvable into the triangle, XXYvq 
first motions were angular, and these contained all the higher 
or more complicated, which, like the lower, out of which they 
are evolved, are also mathematical and chemical, as motionis 
chemical change, direction, arrangement, always. 

Than the following testimony, no greater authority could 
be given, perhaps, on this subject : — 

" Physiology has sufiiciently decisive grounds for the opin- 
ion, that every hiotion, every manifestation of force is a result 
of the transformation of the structure of its substance; that 
every conception, every mental affection, is followed by 
changes in the chemical nature of the secreted fluids ; that 

* Turner's Chem. 5th Am. Ed. p. 271. 
t Arnot's Elements. 
% Legendre, b. 4. 



CfiEMICAL LAWS. 51 

every thought, every sensation, is accompanied by a change 
in the composition of the substance of the brain." 

" The change of matter, the manifestation of mechanical 
force, and the absence of oxygen, are, in the animal body, so 
closely connected with each other, that we may consider the 
amount of motion, and the quantity of living tissue transformed 
as proportional to the quantity of oxygen inspired and consum- 
ed in a given time by an animal."* 

From which it follows, that the arrangement or the forms 
which the particles of any substance take, constitute the high- 
est law of chemistry and mathematics. 

IPolarity. 

28. 1. It is a law of matter that forms, or the sphere with- 
in which bodies move, or within which their particles are ar- 
ranged, determines the direction of their motions. Hence, 
when in a given sphere, a motion has reached a certain point, 
it there evolves another form, or pole, from which another mo- 
tion or force is evolved in an opposite direction ; so that, a ne- 
cessary result of motion in one direction, within a given sphere, 
evolves motion in another direction ; and hence, motions of 
infinite variety, and spheres within spheres may thus be 
evolved ; and each particle of matter must be controlled by 
these motions into forms, series, degrees and spheres, and 
thus the chemical and geometrical relations of all particles of 
matter, and the different forms which they compose, are de- 
termined and mathematically fixed, which develope the nature 
and constitution of things. 

Attraction, Repuli&ioii. 

29. 2. From the poles evolved by the motions within the 
spheres, are constituted what are called the attractive or re- 
pulsive tendency, or motions of particles and bodies, from or 
to one another ;. so that each is attracted in one direction just 
in proportion as it is repelled in another. And hence it is that 
one force evolves another, that is, proceeding in one direction 
within its sphere to a certain point, it there evolves another 
form or pole, and a motion is evolved in another direction ; and 
hence, we say that one is positive, and the other is negative ; 
which is true in this respect only ; one begins to proceed in an 
opposite direction to the other, at a certain point where the 
other forms ii& pole. ^ 



* Liebig Org. Chem. p. 226. i 

§ And is it not in these laws that we are to find a solution of those 
inysterieSj in respect to heat and. oold, when both are said sometimes 



62 BOOK OF HUMAN NATURE. 

3. And hence, it is correct to say of every particle of mat- 
ter, that in its relation to another particle, in one point it is 
positive, and attracts, or wants another; or in a different 
point, it repels, rejects, what it does not want or need ; and 
hence is originated the chemical affinities and tendencies of all 
matter throughout universal existence. Thus, in the develop- 
ment of the vegetable kingdom. The seed is deposited in the 
earth. Its first want is moisture, which it attracts, and is thus 
expanded into a state of germination. It also wants the light 
of the sun, to elaborate its parts, and excite from its pores the 
refuse particles, evolved by the process of nutrition. It wants 
the air, and the rain, and the other properties of the earth, 
which must enter into its composition, for the development of 
the flower, and the perfection of its forms in seed, thus want- 
ing, attracting; and repelling, or throwing off from its surface, 
till it arrives at maturity, evolves its seed or spirit, and then 
is dissolved and returns to the gases, which want or attract it 
back again to its original elements. Hence, we say, that what 
a particle of matter attracts it wants, and either draws from 
its place, or by its want is drawn from its point to the pole, or 
point in the sphere where its want is satisfied. And, arriving 
at that point, and thus satisfying its wants^^ it evolves a new 
motion, which wants to go back again, and in this manner, 
motion from different poles or points, in the spheres, degrees, 
and forms, proceed back and forth, wanting, receiving and re- 
pelling, and rejecting what it does not want, or attract, 
throughout universal existence. Such are the inherent and 
eternal laws of matter. 

Positive, Negative. 

30. The foregoing remarks will assist us in comprehending 
what is meant by these terms. It is common to speak of that 
body which is active, and gives off an influence, as Positive ; 
and the body which is passive and receives, a§ Negative. But 
then it should be borne in mind, that these terms are used 
merely to designate the relation which one body sustains to 
another ; as a body may be both Positive and Negative at one 
and the same time ; that is, B may be Negative to A, while it 
is Positive to C. 



to produce the same results ; as in the eoypansion of water, both by 
heating and freezing ! And so, also, of motion. We speak of it both as 
a cause, and also as an effect, when we say Heat evolves it, and Mo- 
tion also, produces or develops lieat. Certain it is, that all Nature's 
motions do alternate in this way. 8ee (29.) 



MOTION. 53 



Angular Motions. 

31. The earth itself is a mineral production of the laws al- 
ready described. As this is the lowest form, the motions by 
which it was evolved must have been the most simple ; and 
hence, we find them developed in its primitive formations, 
which are angular, and these, as we have seen, contain all the 
higher, inasmuch as all the forms known throughout universal 
space, may be resolved into the triangle or angular, from which 
all other Forms are evolved in ascending and extending De- 
grees and Spheres, and which, as we shall see, correspond 
with the essential elements of the first producing cause. 

On this feature of our subject, perhaps, the following tes- 
timonies will be acceptable. They are from two personages 
who are, by many, considered as very high authority in matters 
of this kind. The identity in the ideas is certainly remark- 
able : — 

I>egrees of Motion. 

32. The lowest form is the angular, which is also called the 
terrestrial and the merely corporeal form, inasmuch as it is 
peculiar to bodies having angles and rectilinear planes, the 
measurement of which is the primary object of the present 
geometry. The second and next higher form is the circular 
or spherical form, which may also be called the perpetual 
angular, since the circumference of the circle involves neither 
angle nor rectilinear plane ; because it is a perpetual angle and 
a perpetual plane, this form is at once the parent and the 
measure of angular forms, for it is the means of showing the 
properties of angles and figures, as trigonometry teaches. The 
form above this, is the spiral, which is the parent and the 
measure of circular forms, as the circular form is the parent and 
the measure of angular forms. Its very radii or diameters are 
rot rectilinear, nor do they converge to a fixed centre, like 
those of a circle, but they are variously circular, and have a 
spherical surface for a centre ; wherefore the spiral is also 
called the perpetual-circular. 

There are other still higher forms, as the perpetual-spiral, 
properly the vortical ; the perpetual-vortical, properly the celes- 
tial ; and a highest, the perpetual-celestial, which is spiritual, 
and has in it nothing but what is everlasting and infinite.* 

The original form was angular. This contained the prin- 
ciple and nature of all other forms ; so, that from the lowest 
and intermediate forms up to the highest, could be constantly 
produced other forms, accompanied with and controlled, and 

* Swedenborg^s Animal Kingdom, I, 126. 



M: BOOK OF HUMAN NATURE. 

acted upon by the Great Positive Power. Progression of the 
angular evolv.ed the circular. This assumed not a spherical 
constitution, but was a combination of angular and rectilinear 
plane. Therefore, the continuance of the angular to the cir- 
cular, was only a perpetually progressive form, ascending 
toward the spiral. And this developed diameters, axes and 
poles, containing the perpetual angular, and progressed to a 
still higher and more perfect form, that of the vortical^ properly 
the celestial. 

Thus, from the lowest to this sphere of progression, there 
was a constant development of inherent principles and laws, 
the lower containing the higher, and the perfected comprehend- 
ing all below it. The perpetual vortical or celestial was the 
spiritual, in which there is nothing, but what is refined, pure, 
and everlastingly infinite, containing unspeakable and celestial 
glory, brightness and grandeur. It is the Vortex, the incon- 
ceivably perfect and spontaneous substance of the Great 
Positive Mind.* 

Heat^ Motion, LigMt. 

33. Thus, all the conditions, motions and manifestations of 
nature, or matter, are mathematical and chemical. The first 
condition in order is Heat ; this evolves motion, form, arrange- 
ment ; this is mathematical ; and motion evolves Light, which 
is chemical change ; and hence it is, that the same primitive 
laws appertain to every particle of matter, throughout universal 
existence, and which produce the revolutions or alterjiations 
of nature, such as Heat and Cold, Light and Darkness, Male 
and Female, Life and Death. One condition, motion, pole or 
force evolves its opposite, or becomes the law, cause, or 
reason for another of an opposite kind. Hence it is, that too 
much of one motion, when unaccompanied by another, pro- 
duces its negative ; as too much excitement of one kind, 
exhausts that kind of excitability ; too much life, so to speak, 
produces death ; and too much of one kind of light produces 
darkness ! Thus, if two red rays, from two luminous points, 
be admitted in a dark chamber, and falling on white paper, or 
other suitable reflecting surface, differ in their length, by 
0,0000258 part of an inch, their intensity is doubled. A like 
result is produced if such difference in length be any multiple 
of that nearly infinitesimal fraction, by a whole number. But, 
a multiple by 2i, 3i, 4i, &c., gives the result of total dark- 
ness ! While a multiple by 2i, Si, &c., gives an intensity 
equal to one ray only. In one of these cases, light actually 
produces darkness ! Corresponding effects are witnessed in 

* A. J. Davis' Nature's Divine Jievelations, p. 123. 



TEUTH. 55 

violet rays, if the difference in their lengths be equal to 
0,0000157 part of an inch. The like results are given by ex- 
periments on all other rays, the difference in length varying 
with a steady uniformity of increase, from the violet to the 
red.* 

With what mathematical certainty and perfection, these 
laws develop the mysteries, miseries and felicities of human 
nature, we shall attempt to show in the following pages. 

Trutli. 

34. From the ground we have now passed over, it may per- 
haps be more easily perceived what is meant by truths which 
corresponds to the wisdom element, or, it is the development 
of the wisdom element in the Divine, the same as Goodness is 
the development of His love element. The laws, therefore, 
of Nature, as we have seen, independent, unvarying, and 
universal, and which bring about association, progression, and 
development, are truths. And, hence it is, that when our 
thoughts internal and external, perfectly correspond with these 
laws or facts, they are truths. Facts are real, hypothetical or 
imaginary; and hence, the 'false is in those representations 
which put the imaginary for the real, or the hypothetical for 
the certain or mathematical. And hence we perceive whence 
it is, that we speak of correspondences between light and 
truth, or falsehood and darkness ; because truth is the light of 
wisdom ; as is always manifest in the conduct of life. The 
manners, or the form and order of our lives, determines the 
degree of our wisdom, precisely how much we know, and how 
much we love of goodness and truth. 

Doctrine of Correspondences. 

35. Correspondences. These are manifested by relations. 
Thus, one motion, form, series or degree, indicates or corres- 
ponds to another. Heat corresponds to love, because it evolves 
motion ; light corresponds to wisdom, because it makes mani- 
fest, directs ; and hence, it is the order and form of the motions, 
evolved by love, which is light and life. Thus, life corres- 
ponds with matter ; the vegetable kingdom corresponds to the 
mineral ; the animal to the vegetable ; the mental to the ani- 
mal, and the spiritual to the mental. The sense of feeling 
corresponds to the external world ; hearing to sound ; sight to 
light ; and thus correspondences exist between every form and 



* I have seen it stated that Prof. Henry has shown, from recent 
experiments, that two rays of heat may be so combined, or antagoni- 
zed, as to annihilate each other, and thus produce cold I 



56 BOOK OF HUMAN NATUKE. 

degree of development in the mineral, vegetable, animal and 
spiritual kingdoms. 

Associations produce results, and correspond with causes, 
as we have seen ; and results always correspond with the asso- 
ciations ; thus, love and will with wisdom, heat and motion 
with light, evolves life ; the most simple forms of associated 
motions corresponding with the three elements, makes the 
triangle ; and so of all other results, from the lowest to the 
highest, till we ascend into the spiritual and eternal. 

The human mind is never so conscious of real pleasure as 
when it comes into a full comprehension of the Doctrine of 
Correspondences. When sufficiently developed to be able to 
perceive how God, Nature, and Law, correspond, we begin to 
be satisfied, as the Psalmist anticipated he should be when he 
awoke into the likeness or form of the Divine.* 

None but God can be said to see things precisely as they 
are, in their inmost, because He is. Himself the inmost of all 
things. To Him therefore, nothing can be said to be either 
hypothetical, imaginary or false. But not so with man, he 
sees or perceives from appearances only, and these must 
always depend upon the degrees in which his love and wisdom 
elements are harmoniously developed. In those sciences, 
therefore, which depend upon observation and the analogies of 
reason, truths, can be to us, merely apparent, and which, the 
laws of eternal progression are constantly unfolding to our in- 
ternal and external senses ; so that there never can be a 
period when we may be said to be perfectly free from error ! 

Those sciences, therefore, which depend upon the relations 
of space and number, or the fundamental principles of nature, 
may be said to be systems of facts which never change. But, 
those we denominate purely moral, are developed by those 
very laws of nature, and must hence progress with the ever 
diversified progression ot the whole human race. 

1. In the external world, all we know or believe is from 
mere appearances. Objects have, indeed, a real substantial 
existence ; but, we see their appearance merely ; and the per- 
fection in which our external senses are developed, 'determines 
precisely, how near we come to i\\e truth. 

* Swedenborg has advanced many truthful ideas on the theological 
aspects of this subject ; and A. J. Davis, has, also, written some 
beautiful strains on the Correspondences, of Nature, including more 
or less of the Divine. But, an extensive want is now felt for a Trea- 
tise on the Doctrine of Correspondences, as developed in the essence, 
form, and use of all things. A good idea of what we mean, may be 
suggested by examining Mr. A. J. Davis' Chart, exhibiting the Pro- 
gressive History of the Human Kace. See also " The Macrocosm and 
and Microcosm," by W. Fishbous;h. 



RELATION. 57 

2. And, thus in the mental, even more than the external 
world. The principles, or objects, on which our spiritual 
senses are exercised, have an hypothetical, or real existence ; 
but our sight or perception of them, is onl)' of their appearance 
to us ; and how they will appear to us, must of course depend 
upon the degrees in which our mental or spiritual senses are 
developed. It is only those who are " of full age," those 
who, by practice, have their senses exercised or developed, 
that can " discern both good and evil."* 

delation. 

36. As we shall see, the term sphere applies to all Forms in 
the universe, and the sphere of two different bodies determines 
the Relation or the position which Forms, Series and De- 
grees sustain to each other, and this Relation constitutes the 
influence which one may have upon another. 

Perfection, Good; Imperfection, Hvil* 

37. Perfection in the Motions, Forms and Degrees, is the 
greatest good of each. This implies unity, harmony, and 
mathematical regularity in the development of every part, in 
each element of each degree, in the different Spheres or 
Kingdoms. Thus, if the first, second or third elements in the 
mineral form be irregularly developed, imperfection in the 
form is the result. So in the vegetable kingdom, the good- 
ness of the form corresponds with the perfection in the devel- 
opments of each element ; if they are developed in perfect 
harmony the individual form is perfect, and the best of the 
kind or degree. And, ascending to the Animal Kingdom, the 
goodness or use of each animal, corresponds with the perfec- 
tion in which each element of their nature is developed. 
When the first is developed without the second or third, they 
will be remarkable for nothing but their eating or living dispo- 
sitions ; the first and second develops appetite and muscular 
power ; the first, second and third perfectly developed, the 
animal evinces instinctive powers, corresponding with its de- 
gree. And the perfection in which each element is developed 
in the Vegetable and Animal Kingdoms, determines the fitness 
or goodness of the Vegetable or Animal for the use of man. 
The emotional susceptibilities, volitional and intellectual pow- 
ers, are developed and determined in precisely the same way ; 
and thus, also, the health, strength, and beauty of the human 
form. The human body is the most healthy, the most free 
from pain, when each element is developed in harmony, and 

* Heb. 5 : 14. 
3* 



58 BOOK OP HUMAN" NATURE. 

in the greatest degree of perfection ; and the human mind is 
the most holy and happy, when its elements perfectly corres- 
pond in their motions and forms. The first element, or the 
first and second, without the third, makes a mere animal ; but 
the third, which is the perfection of the whole, allies man most 
to the Divine Original ; and when individuals, families, soci- 
eties and nations, are governed by the higher developments 
of wisdom, the greatest amount of love and good will pre- 
vail among them all. 

Essence, Forms, Uses. 

38. These, also, are threefold ; as all forms have respect 
to the use, or the end, or purposes which they serve. 

1. The first Use respects the individuality of the Form, its 
distinction and conservation. 2. The next has respect to its 
receptive and injestive Motions, by which it attracts and re- 
ceives whatever tends to its sphere, and is necessary for its 
perpetuation. 3. The third Use is the perfection of the whole, 
and has respect to progressive development, and the tendency 
to extend, or to ascend, or descend into the higher or lower 
degrees ; so that all Forms are useful, good or evil, in propor- 
tion as they correspond and harmonize in the motions of their 
development. 

We speak of goodness as that which tends to develop the 
organism. Hence we say it is i\ie fruit of Divine Love, be- 
cause it is that which Love does by which Light and Life are 
given. And so we say Truth is the light of Divine Wisdom, 
because Wisdom is Form and Order. The Infinite must exist 
in form and order ; and this order makes love the first ele- 
ment ; hence it gives life ; and the highest wisdom, which is 
the element of intelligence, reason, knowledge, which is the 
law bv which the emotions of love are evolved. 



LIFE. 59 



THE HUMAN SOUL. 

MOTION, LIFE, SENSATION. 



liife. 



39. The life element is /ot>e, as we have seen, and is inherent 
from the Divine, in all forms of substance. As God is love or 
life in Himself, so all the forms which are evolved from Him, 
have in them, heat, or the life element, from the lowest to the 
highest. In Him, love and wisdom are co-existent, and eter- 
nal, and hence, the wisdom element in the existence of the 
lowest or mineral kingdom is high ; but in the angular forms 
of its materials it may be said to be low. In the vegetable 
kingdom, the wisdom element is manifest in a higher form, 
because it evolves the circular motions, produces porosity and 
the nutritive fluid. Ascending to the kingdom next in order, 
we perceive the wisdom element in what we denominate in- 
stinct, which constitutes animal life in its lowest forms. 

The Human Form. 

40. Man finds himself in existence, possessed of a material 
body, conscious of certain sensations, and a combination of in- 
herent faculties, long before he begins to inquire as to the 
NATURE or CAUSES of his being, or by what laws his final des- 
tiny is to be determined. It is in the exercise of one of these 
faculties, that he desires to know from whence he came ; 
what laws have given him his nature ; what are the conditions 
which produce his happiness or misery, and which constitute 
the mysteries or excellencies which make him a human being. 
And more, the faculties by which he answers these queries, 
he finds to be the most ennobling in his nature ; and hence, 
their exercise in this investigation of himself, affords the 
greatest satisfaction which his nature is capable of enjoying. 

To ascertain what man is, we must go to man himself. We 
want to know, not merely what he is to-day, but what he was 
yesterday, the day before, and as far back as history furnishes 



60 BOOK OF HUMAN NATUKE. 

any Icnowledge of the race. What views did man formerly 
take of himself, as to his nature, his origin, and destiny ? 

If we wish to examine any book, any science, we go to the 
book, we consult the subject in its nearest form, in order to 
satisfy ourselves as to its essence, form and use. And thus, 
especially with man, the form in which human nature is deve- 
loped. All the views, therefore, which human beings have 
ever taken of themselves, or of the Divine, and all that they 
are capable of taking of any and all things, must come into 
this account, in order for each result to be traced to its appro- 
priate cause. 

Origin of tlie Race. 

41. As to the direct origin of the race, as such, I do not per- 
ceive how it is any more possible for us to know at present 
any more about it, than one does of his own birth. That is an 
event, which would seem to be so far back of our present ca- 
pacity to know, that we may well be satisfied to leave it where 
it is. It may be manifest how others came into this sphere, 
and we infer, of course, if we are like them, we were born in 
the same way. 

The question has been mooted by geologists, whether the 
race have had a diversity of origin ? Now, we know, that 
the mineral kingdom, as a kingdom, is a unit^ an Individuality, 
so to speak. So of the vegetable kingdom and of the animal. 
But, can we suppose that either of these kingdoms had a diver- 
sity of origin ? In his individuality, man comprehends all the 
kingdoms below him ; and we infer, that in the nature and con- 
stitution of things, when man was developed, an individual, 
male and female, the germ of the race was thus formed. And, 
in harmony with the laws of eternal progression, this germ 
must have been developed at the appropriate time after nature's 
period of gestation. There was a time for the completion of 
the mineral, vegetable, and animal kingdoms ; and when com- 
pleted, nature's work in that respect was done. 

And so of the humain race. When the mineral, vegetable, 
and animal kingdoms were Individualized into Man, nature's 
tendencies were perfected and finished in that respect. I do 
not say but that during a certain period of nature's history, 
she may not have brought forth a number of human children, 
and thus the different species of the race may have been deve- 
loped. However, I see no necessity for this supposition, but 
some difficulties against it. I rather suppose, that what we 
call species, are portions of the same origin which have suc- 
ceeded one another, the higher from the lower in correspond- 
ence with every other department of nature.* 

'^ Ab to the " MoEaiq Kecordi," it affords ns but little Msistanco 



HYPOTHETICAL — INSTINCT. 61 



Hypotlietical. 

42. We are told that the system of animated nature is so 
intermingled, that a chain of being, as it were, may be said to 
run through "the whole. Thus, bitumen and sulphur form the 
link between earth and metals ; vitriols unite metals with 
salts ; crystallizations connect salts with stones ; the armianthus 
and lythophites form a kind of tie between stones and plants ; 
the polypus unites plants to insects ; the tube worm seems to 
lead to shells and reptiles ; the water serpent and the eel form 
a passage from reptiles to fish ; the anas nigra is a medium 
between fishes and birds ; the bat and the flying squirrel link 
birds to quadrupeds, and the monkey equally gives the hand to 
the quadruped and to man. 

Although it may not be encumbent on us to say precisely 
where, in the whole thread of Nature's developments, any one 
of the Individual kingdoms began, or precisely where the 
Race, as such, commenced, yet we may resoit to the Laws 
which we find now in constant operation in and around us, and 
which are sufficient to account for the great Fact of Human 
Existence, as we have seen, and as will be made to appear 
more and more as we proceed. (38.) 

Instinct. 

43. An Instinctive action is common to all Forms of Lit n. 
without sensation, reason or observation, by which the organ- 
ism adapts appropriate motions to the accomplishment of 
definite ends, according to the wants of the organism acting. 
This Instinctive power is a distinguishing characteristic of the 
nutritive fluid. (45.) It is a Form of moving Forces, the 
directions of which are determined and fixed by the Degrees or 
Sphere, in which the motions are developed. (20.) 

Whatever, therefore, be the Form of the organism, we call 
those actions Instinctive, which are without experience or 
knowledge, without observation or consciousness. It is the 
Wisdom Element, acting in the lower Forms of Animals, and 
it corresponds with Intuition, in the higher Forms of Intel- 
ligence. (92.) Thus, so to speak, we say, that when the 
motions of Love or Heat extend to Wisdom or Form, that is. 



indeed, in our attempts to settle any question connected with Anthro- 
pology. It is by no means evident, that Moses either understood it, or 
designed to teach the present inhabitants of the earth on this subject 
ut all. We should as soon undertake to dress and regulate our die- 
tetic babita as Moses did, as we should shape our views by his on 
th« origin of the human race. 



62^ BOOK OF HUMAN NATUEE. 

so as to make a certain Form or Organism, those motions 
become vital or instinctive, because they make a circle or 
pores, for the circulation. 

Tegetat>le Iii§tiiict. 

44. Instinct, therefore, is the first Form of motion, and 
commences, as we have seen, in the lowest kingdom (19.) 
and ascends up, and thus develops the higher Forms above. 
We are told that if a pan of water be placed within six inches, 
on either side of the stem of a young pumpkin or vegetable 
marrow, it will, in the course of the night, approach it, and 
will be found in the morning with one of its leaves floating on 
the water. (25). T-his experiment may be continued nightly, 
until the plant begins to fruit. If a prop be placed within six 
inches of a young convolvulus, or scarlet runner, it will find 
it, although the prop be shifted daily. If, after it had twined 
some distance up the prop, it be unwound and twined in the 
opposite direction, it will return to its original position, or die 
in the attempt ; yet, notwithstanding, if two of these plants 
grow near each other, and have no stake around which they 
can entwine, one of them will alter the direction of its spiral, 
and they will twine around each other. Duhamel placed some 
kidney beans in a cylinder of moist earth. After a short time, 
they began to germinate, of course, sending the plume upwards 
to the light, and the root down into the soil. After a few 
days, the cylinder was turned one-fourth round, and again and 
again this was repeated, until an entire revolution of the 
cylinder had been completed. The beans were then taken out 
of the earth, and it was found that both the plume and radicle 
had been bent to accommodate themselves to every revolution 
(40.) ; and the one in its efforts to ascend, and the other to 
descend, had formed a perfect spiral. But, although the natural 
tendency of the root is downwards, if the soil beneath be dry, 
and any damp substance be above, the roots will ascend to 
reach it.* And thus it is, that this intelligent principle, 
(intelligent for the organism) is always present, acting, and 
adopting appropriate motions for the gratification of its own 
peculiar wants. 

45. Alt Motion is not Life ; but such associated harmonized 
Motions as produce Porosity and Nutrition. To understand, 
therefore, how Life is developed into Sensation, or the form of 
Animals, we must keep in mind the Laws of Matter, already 

* Spirit World, Vol. 2, p. 148. 



VITALITY. 63 

described. (19 ) And from which we may now be prepared 
to conceive, the true nature and purposes of the Nutritive 
Fluid. The Motions which produce Animal Life being Spi- 
ral, we have Porosity and the movement of the Nutritive 
Fluid, for the elimination of the parts to be developed. The 
first Forms of Life, therefore, appear in the Instinctive or Nu- 
tritive Fluid.* 

Vitality. 4 

46. And thus Life is developed in Forms, Degrees and 
Spheres ; and from which we may perceive what Life is, what 
the nutritive, or the Living Forces, are. And, in answering 
this question, we have shown what Instinct is, for Instinct is 
but another word for the Vital Forces, or nutritive action. 
An Instinctive Action is common to all Forms of matter, and 
it is one by which the organism adapts appropriate means for 
the accomplishment of definite ends, according to the wants or 
attractive force of the Organism acting. (28.) 

And thus we find the Laws of Matter, already* described, de- 
veloped in the Form of Life, and these forms extending and 
ascending, from one degree to the next higher, till they pro- 
ceed from one sphere or kingdom to the next above, by the 
mathematical motions and laws of chemical arrangement, 

* The reader will perceive as he proceeds, what an important part 
this Idea of the Nutritive Principle bears in the author's Theory. 
Notice is called to it, here, because it seems just now, 1852, begin- 
ning to attract the attention of tiie Medical Faculty : — 

"We see it stated in the papers, that an application has been made 
to Congress for the grant of Letters Patent, to " secure the right of 
Discovery of the Nutritive Principle in the Cure of Disease," to a 
' Doctor A. G. H.' And a book has also been published, in which 
the claim of " discovery" is assei:'ted. 

"Well, so the world goes. Now it so happens that we have before 
us a copy of a bo(5k, published in this city in 1847, in which this very 
' Discovery' is announced, and indeed this " theory" constitutes a 
characteristic trait in Mr. Sunderland's Book and Theory of ' Path- 
etism' from first to last I (See on pages 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 
44, 69, 64 and 70.) 

"Now after the discovery has been some five years before the pub- 
lic, it is, to us, marvelous, that any one pretending to a knowledge 
of justice, or rnedical science, should make an application for' a Pat- 
ent, and for that which he ought to know, of right, belongs to ano- 
ther ! It would be a singular case, indeed, were Congress to grant 
the claim." — Boston Journal of Medicine, Dec. 1852. 

It is perhaps characteristic of this country, that "Discoveries" 
should be so often made five and ten years after precisely the same 
" principle" had been announced to the public. Vide the author's 
pamphlet, entitled " New Theory of the Mind. Statement of its 
Philosophy, and its Discovery Defended." Stearns & Co. New York. 



64 BOOK OF HUMAN NATURE. 

which evolve and govern, from the lowest to the highest, 
throughout universal existence. 

If we except the writings of Swedenborg and A. J. Davis, 
it may be truthfully affirmed, that the speculations of Philoso- 
phers in preceding ages have not assisted us very much in de- 
fining what Life is. However, merely using this term as ex- 
pressive of a Fact, like the phenomena which appear from 
attraction and repulsion, we find little or no difficulty. 

To suppose, therefore, that Life is a mere result of organ- 
ism is an insane idea. What made the organism ? The truth 
is. Life controls and develops its own organism, and, in doing 
so, we have seen how the Digestive Process controls a certain 
class of lower organisms. (39, 40.) The fluids of which 
the embryo is formed, must be endowed with previous life, 
because from their union a living Form is developed, which 
partakes of the properties of both its parents. If it be said, 
that this fluid must be composed of organized particles, I an- 
swer, that a previous life gave them their peculiar organiza- 
tion. As we have seen, the higher Forms attract the lower. 
And hence it must ^e borne in mind, that when we say, that 
Life is never apparent except where certain well known che- 
mical affinities are in operation, it must not be forgotten that 
Life performs its functions only by annihilating certain chemi- 
cal tendencies, as it is only in this way that the organism is 
preserved from decay. The ever-present, all-powerful Law 
of Gravitation, is resisted, and entirely suspended by the Vital 
Force. The sap in vegetables and the fluids in animals, all 
ascend against this law. 

The higher mo^ton* of Animal Life may be seen, also, in 
the power of the living Body to generate caloric. Persons 
have been known to remain in a heated oven while dead flesh 
was cooked ; and in the account of Capt. Parry's Voyage to 
the Arctic Seas, we are told that his crew were frequently ex- 
posed to a temperature 150 deg. below their own bodies, with- 
out being frozen at all ! 



ORGANIC LIFE. 65 



THE HUMAN BODY. 

MINERAL, VEGETABLE, ANIMAL. 



47. The nerves of organic life constitute a distinct system ; 
they are those forms of matter in which animal life first makes 
its appearance, and from which all the parts of the human body 
are subsequently developed. First, we find the rudiments of 
a heart, with its blood-vessels, and successively the viscera 
connected with this organ, and .which are the most necessary 
to constitute the living body, such as the stomach, alimentary 
canal, lungs, &c. These nerves are peculiar in their structure 
and functions. They are composed, principally of bundles, 
called ganglia^ or little brains which give off various branches 
extending to the different parts constituting the apparatus of 
organic life, which they supply with all the powers necessary 
for their development and functions. These ganglia are insen- 
sible, except when the parts become diseased, and they inter- 
cept impressions made upon the nerves of sensation, and pre- 
vent them from reaching the functions of organic life. 

Mypotlieses. 

48. If this view of the ganglionic system be correct, we may 
see why it is that there seem to be more ganglia in the dorsal 
and lumbar regions, than have been found in all the other parts 
of the system ; and it will explain a number of phenomena which 
have hitherto remained in the dark. As, for instance : 

1. That the sensation of sympathy is generally felt in the 
region of the solar plexus, which corresponds to the coronal 
regions of the head. When this feeling is powerfully excited, 
the hand is instinctively placed upon the epigastrium. 

2. That the senses are sometimes by disease, transposed 
and located in this region. In cases of catalepsy and trance, 
persons have been unable to hear or see, except from this 
region. 



6^ 



BOOK OF HUMAN NATUBE. 



3. A slight blow upon this region has frequently occasioned 
instant death ; while severe blows upon the head, or mutila- 
tions, or even the destruction of the brains, did not immediately 
destroy life. 

4. These ganglia, and, indeed the ganglionic system, have 
been found fully developed in the foetuses born without brains 
or spinal marrow. Hence it is plain, that the animal or vital 
functions can be carried on without brains, but not without the 
ganglia and solar plexus. 

5. It explains the reasons why the heart continues its func- 
tions after the head has been struck from the body. Dr. Bor- 
tels declares, that when he opened the chests of six men in 
182G, immediately after decapitation, near Marbourg, he found 
the hearts beating regularly for half an hour afterwards ; and 
when languishing, they were excited by irritating the great 
sympathetic nerve, — and yet, irritation of the spinal chord had. 
no effect on the heart whatever, though it did affect the mus- 
cles of the trunk. And he further informs us, that on dividing 
the cardia plexus, the action of the heart ceased instantly.* 
And after the cerebrum and cerebellum of a man had been 
entirely blown off by an explosion of fire-arms, the circulation 
and respiration continued for more than half an hour. 

If we suppose that the different systems are evolved in suc- 
cession, and one by the other, we may thus account for the re- 
dundances or deficiencies with which foetuses often come into 
the world.! 

Mntritive Fluid. 

49. This fluid is chemical in its nature, as it corresponds 
with the laws (15.) of its production, heat, evolution, motion, 
form, and light, excitement ; and hence we find that it is made 
by the transformations of substances. Those motions, there- 
fore, which constitute this fluid, are of the first importance, as 
upon their mathematical regularity or perfection, all the phe- 
nomena of life^ healthy and the Mental Manifestations en- 
tirely depend. Their grand characteristics are comprehended 
in centripetal and centrifugal movements, as we shall see ; 
that is, those motions which accumulate matter around, or 
towards the capillary centres, and those which excite, or throw 
out by excitement the refuse matter which has answered the 
purposes of the nutritive power. And in these motions we 
find the rationale of excitement and rest, nutrition, functional 

* Bichat says he had observed no effects on dividing the cardiac 
filaments. 

t We have accounts of parts of foetuses found in the bodies of 
males, one nine, and another some twenty-six years of age. 



ANIMAL LIFE. 67 

power, and its expenditure in exercise, or the philosophy of 
sleeping and waking. 

As this fluid is directly concerned in evolving the nervous 
matter from which all parts of the human body are produced, 
of course, that matter must partake of its nature, and be more 
or less chemical in the laws by which it is governed. Indeed, 
it will be seen at once, that the farther back we look for the 
evolving, moving, producing power, the nearer we approach 
to the most important part of the subject under consideration. 
And hence, we find that upon no other fluid, or principle, are 
the functions of the nervous system so dependent as upon this. 
The air may be shut out for awhile from the lungs ; food may 
be withheld for a period from the stomach ; but, if the distri- 
bution of the arterial blood be stopped for an instant, the most 
disastrous consequences follow, from which we infer that this 
is the most important fluid in the living body. 

The nutritive fluid corresponds with the elementary motions 
and forms of matter in the body, the nerves, the mind ; for 
each form and degree are evolved and constituted by the mo- 
tions of life through this fluid as the means. Motion is the 
cause, the nutritive fluid, the means, and life the result. 
Hence, whatever motions are peculiar to the elements which 
constitute the human mind, love, will and wisdom, they are 
manifested through the nutritive fluid. 

Aiiianal iLife. 

50. It is certain that the higher forms of animals live upon 
vegetation, while the higher forms of the vegetable kingdom 
and the lower forms of the animal, approach so nearly that it 
is not easy to tell them apart : 

1. To which kingdom do those little calcareous forms belong, 
called eyestones ? In substance they are stone ; and yet they 
have the form of life, and show the first signs of it in their 
motions ; and thus we have a connection between mineral and 
vegetable life. And then, again, in the sponge, we have a 
connection between the vegetable and animal. And to which 
kingdom do the coral insects belong 1 or that class called the 
cryptoneura, including the sea-nettles^ &c. ? Are they vegetable 
or mineral ? And so of the sensitive mimosa, deonoea miscupola, 
&c. These plants show sensibility to mechanical shocks, and, 
like animal life, are affected by chemical agents, such as nitric 
or sulphuric acids ; and they are poisoned also by any of the 
narcotics, precisely as we see sensation affected in the ner- 
vous system. 

2. Another series in the Form of vegetation develops mo- 
tion, similar to that of the human heart. Thus, in the mov- 



68 BOOK OF HUMAN NATURE. 

merits of the Hedysarum Gyrans, its leaves are composed of 
three leaflets : two lateral, linear, oblongr, and another without 
a fellow, removed from the two former, much larger, and of an 
oval, oblong form. The two lateral leaflets are in constant 
motion, which is executed like that performed like the second 
hand of a watch, that is, a quick, sudden jerk ; one of them 
rising about fifty degrees above the level of the leaf-stalk, 
while the other descends in about the same proportion. In 
India, when the weather is hot and moist, these leaflets have 
been seen to execute sixty jerks in a minute.* 

3. These motions bear a striking similarity to that de- 
nominated Ciliary, which has been noticed throughout the 
entire group of the intervertebrate animals, and in some higher 
Forms, performed by what are called cilia, exceedingly small 
and numerous, but so active as to give direction to the fluids 
in which they are immersed. This motion continues after the 
death of the animal in which it lives, and much longer in the 
lower than in the higher Forms. It must be independent of 
the nervous system of the animals, as it is not affected when 
the animals are killed by the most powerful narcotics, or by 
Galvanism, unless the shock be strong enough to disorganize 
the tissue. 

4. Another approach of vegetation to animal life is develop- 
ed in the sexuality of trees and plants. Maize, the strawberry, 
and many other productions in the vegetable kingdom, as is 
well known, are propagated by this law (60). f 

Orowtli. 

51. The term ingestion may be used, for the want of a 
better one, to signify all those centripetal motions which re- 
ceive and carry to the capillary centres, and thus augment the 
parts and their functions. To understand the whole Nutritive 



* DeCandolle's Pliys. reg.,Yo\. 11, p. 869. 

t Vegetable Serpent. — According to some Italian journal, a new 
organized being has been discovered in the interior of Africa, wliich 
seems to form an intermediate link between vegetable and animal 
life. This singular production of nature has the shape of a spotted 
serpent. It drags itself along on the ground ; instead of a head, has 
a flower, shaped like a bell, which cont,ains a vicious liquid. Flies 
and other insects, attracted by the smell of the juice, enter into the" 
flower, where they are caught by the adhesive matter. The flower, 
then, closes, and remains shut until the prisoners are bruised and 
transformed into chyle. The indigestible portions, such as the head 
and wings, are thrown out by two spiral openings. The vegetable 
serpent has a skin resembling leaves, a white and soft flesh, and 
instead of a bony skeleton, a cartilaginous frame tilled with yellow 
marrow. — if. Y, Spirit of the Times. 



SLEEP. 69 

Economy, we should have to take into view all that is included 
in the motions of Breathing, Digestion, Circulation and As- 
similation. Centripetal motions, it is certain, are the ^rott'^^ 
of the system, and these are the motions which constitute that 
state denominated sleep, in which the parts and their functions 
are increased or renewed. 

Sleep. 

52. Sleep is the centripetal motions of the nutritive forces 
by which the parts are increased in their constituent molecules, 
or their functional powers. It is a law of motion, as we have 
seen (12), for forces, to form poles at certain distances within 
their spheres. That is, the force stops at a certain point 
within its sphere, where another motion is evolved in an 
opposite direction. And thus we perceive the alternate mo- 
tions that constitute sleeping and waking. The time for each 
state is determined by the Sphere in which the systems are 
developed ; and their intensity and duration are alternated by 
each other, as a matter of course. Sleep, therefore, is 
nutritive action in the strict sense of the word ; it is that 
centripetal action, which is the opposite of excitement from 
light, and all external influences which tend to excite the 
centrifugal motions of wakefulness, by which the energies of 
the body and mind are drawn out, and exhausted. Hence, we 
sleep best in the dark, for sleep is but another term for growth, 
in both plants and animals.^ It is the time taken by the mo- 
tions in the capillaries, which appropriate the nutritive fluid to 
supply the wants for augmenting the parts, and for reproducing 
what they have exhausted from light and exercise. 

Nature of Sleep* 

53. The evidences by which this solution of sleep is de- 
monstrated would, of themselves, fill a volume. A few only 
can be referred to here. 

1. In sleep, respiration and circulation are more slow than 
in the waking condition, thus allowing time for the nutritive 
fluid to repair the want of excitement. 

2. Venous blood is that part of the blood which has deposit- 
ed its nutritive properties ; therefore, whatever tends to pro- 



* This may be easily proved by a hop, or grape vine, that grows 
against a wall. On any morning, when it has the appearance of a hot 
day, put a mark upon the wall as high as the vine will reach. Examine 
that vine in the evening, and you will see no increase, but the next 
morning you will find it has grown the length of an inch, or bo. 



70 BOOK OF HUMAN NATUEE. 

duce this state of the blood, must necessarily induce those 
motions in the vital, spiritual, or instinctive principle (23), 
which constitute sleep. Hence, — 

" 1. Venous congestion of the brain, from any obstacle to 
the return of the blood, will produce drowsiness, stupor, coma, 
and finally apoplexy, if its intensity be sufficiently great. 

"2. In sleep, respiration and circulation are performed 
more slowly than in the waking condition : hence, a change in 
the blood of the brain does not occur so frequently. 

" 3. Animal heat, and its causes, respiration and circulation, 
are feeble in hybernating animals during their winter sleep. 

*' 4. The adult, in whom the respiratory and circulating 
systems are at the maximum of development, takes less sleep 
than the infant, in whom the nutritive .or glandular system is in 
full activity, but in whom the respiratory functions are at their 
minimum. 

" 5. Motion, with its tendency to increase circulation and 
respiration, prevents sleep. 

" G. Hence, an easy and quiet position of the body, and- all 
the means which tend to favor a tranquil circulation, are 
incentives to sleep. 

" 7. Hence, the whole class of sedative remedies eventually 
produce slowness of the heart's action, after a longer or 
shorter stage of stimulation. 

" 8. Hence, the desire of sleep after exercise, as the cir- 
culation becomes so much slower after it, in proportion to its 
acceleration during it. 

" 9* From the same cause, wine and all stimulants act 
primarily as excitants ; and when their stimulation has sub- 
sided, the circulation becomes slow, slightly oppressed, and 
drowsiness supervenes. 

" 10. The same may be said of the warm bath, the pulse at 
first rising, and subsequently becoming retarded. 

"11. Cold, applied to the head, rapidly lessens the circula- 
tion, and tranquil sleep is sometimes produced by this means, 
in fierce delirium, and in violent paroxysms of insanity. 

" 12. Motion is employed as a remedial means in obviating 
the effects of opium. We walk the patient about, and so keep 
the circulation excited, till the poison is got rid of, or its effects 
shall have passed off. 

" 13. Intense cold produces slow and retarded circulation, 
drow.siness, and coma. Hence, the necessity not to allow 
persons exposed to its influence to cease from exercise, which 
supplies the necessary stimulation to. the circulation. A 
celebrated surgeon, in describing the disastrous retreat from 
Moscow, says, ' Those who sat down went to sleep, and those 
who slept, awoke no more.' 



NATURE OF SLEEP. 71 

" 14. Hence, the amount of fat animal food which is not 
only eaten with impunity by those who are exposed to great 
cold, but is found to be absolutely essential to maintain the 
proper amount of circulation. 

" 15. We have sneezing and yawning as important illustra- 
tions of the ejEFects of an accelerated circulation in preventing 
sleep. The sneeze is a forcible expiration, after which a deep 
breath is taken in ; this of course produces arterialization and 
subsequent circulation of the blood. Yawning is a prolonged 
and deep inspiration, and in the same manner has the effect, for 
a time of keeping up the attention, by furnishing to the brain 
a fresh amount of arterialized blood. 

" 16. Immersion in an atmosphere of carbonic acid, or in an 
atmosphere which contains a large proportion of it, will pro- 
duce drowsiness, coma, and the sleep of death. 

*' 17. Breathing oxygen gas, on the contrary, will produce 
acceleration of the pulse, and all the vital functions, and 
eventually delirium. 

" 18. In delirium, whether attended with symptoms of power 
or debility, whether of the sthenic or asthenic type, we have 
an accelerated pulse. In the former case, as we lessen the 
excitement by depleting measures, and in the latter, or true 
delirium tremens, as we obtain the same end by the use of 
narcotics, sleep gradually steals on the patient, and delirium 
ceases. In fact, our grand object is to lessen the rapidity of 
the circulation through the brain, and thus induce sleep."* 

'Wakefulnes§, Exercise, £gestioii. 

54. These terms imply so nearly the same motions, and of 
the same laws, that they might be used almost synonymously. 
They each signify the centrifugal motions of the nutritive 
forces, which constitute excitement^ wakefulness, consumption, 
or expenditure of functional power, and all those exhalations 
from the different parts of the system, produced and evolved 
by the nutritive process, principally, during the time not spent 
in sleep. T say principally, for we know that in sleeping there 
is what may be termed a compensating process of excreting 
carbonic acid, and the vapor of water, for at every instant of 
life parts of the body are thus removed, and emitted into the 
atmosphere. And so, also, in waking, or during the exhaustion 
or excitement of the system, there is a constant series of 
centripetal motions, which supply and appropriate the quantity 
of the vital fluids necessary to keep up the motions of life. 
In these two alternating motions, we have the process which 

*'W. Smith, Esq., London Lancet.; 



72 BOOK OF HUMAN NATURE. 

makes the bloody and from that the nutritive matter from 
which we see the correspondence that should always exist 
between sleep and exercise, and food and air. Exercise 
increases breathing, and the air we breathe supplies the fire 
which consumes the food ; this food, digested, supplies the 
nutritive matter, and which must be appropriated in sleep. 
So, if the excitement be mental, and exhaustion brings on those 
MOTIONS which supply the waste. There is a perfect identity 
between the blood and the chemical composition of fibrine and 
albumen. The nutritive process is simplest in the case of the 
carnivora. This class of animals live on the blood and flesh 
of the graminivora, whose blood and flesh is identical with 
their own. In a chemical sense, therefore, a carnivorous 
animal, in taking food, feeds upon itself; for the nutriment is 
identical in composition with its own tissues. 

The nitrogenized compounds of vegetables, forming the food 
of graminivorous animals, are called vegetable fibrine, vegeta- 
ble albumen, and vegetable caseine. Now, analysis shows 
that they are exactly of the same composition in one hundred 
parts ; and, what is still more extraordinary, they are absolute- 
ly identical with the chief constituents of the blood — animal 
fibrine and animal albumen. By identity we do not imply 
similarity, but absolute identity/, even as far as their inorganic 
constituents are concerned. These considerations show the 
beautiful simplicity of nutrition. In point of fact, vegetables 
produce, in their inorganism, the blood of all animals. Animal 
and vegetable life are therefore most closely connected, as 
we have seen, for the vegetable kingdom develops the animal. 
(19.*) 

When exercise is denied to gramnivorous and omnivorous 
animals, this is tantamount to a deficient supply of oxygen. 
The carbon of the food, not meeting with sufiicient oxygen to 
consume it, passes into the compounds containing a large ex- 
cess of carbon, and deficiency of oxygen ; or, in other words, 
fat is produced, which may be said to be an abnormal produc- 
tion, arising from a disproportion of carbon in the food to that 
of the oxygen respired by the lungs, or absorbed by the skin. 

Correspondential Plienomeiia. 

55. In all these combined and wonderful motions, we see 
how beautifully the whole correspond with the three progres- 
sive degrees already described, (19,) and in which are devel- 
oped the essence of the great originating cause. Instinct. In- 
gestive or Nutritive Action, corresponds to Love, which 

• Vtdr the author's Booh of ffialth. 2d Edition, p. 50. 



INSTINCTIVE PHENOMENA. 7S 



the substance injested, or received, which corresponds to Will, 
power or motion, which produces forms ; and excretion, ex- 
citement, exclusion, development, which corresponds to Light 
or Wisdom. 

Motive L.ife. 

56. The next ascending degree in the Human Form, devel- 
ops those nerves composing the excito-motive system, includ- 
ing the spinal cord, medulla oblonga, and the various branches 
through which are evolved the motions of sensation and mo- 
tion. And here, again, we find another ascending series, cor- 
responding with all that have gone before. 

Ingestion, Retention, Egestion. 

57. Each of these motions are instinctive, (43,) and are car- 
ried on independently of the brains of which this system is the 
germ, and by which all the higher forms are yet to be de- 
veloped. 

Ingestion. These motions produce deglutition, by which 
food is received into the stomach, and the air is inhaled into 
the lungs. 

Retention. The motions which contract the sphinters, 
&c., and keep the contents of the bowels in their proper 
places. 

Egestion. Motions which expel the inhaled air from the 
lungs, and induce the closure of the eyelids, or any other 
movement to keep the system from injury. In these functions 
are originated all those motions peculiar to sneezing, vomiting, 
parturition, spasms, breathing, &c. &c. And they may be 
originated and carried on without any brains, as we know some 
of them are, as in the case of decapitated animals, and acepha- 
lous infants, (64.) 

Instinctive Phenomena. 

58. And here, again, to understand the phenomena of life, 
we must keep in view what has been said of Instinct, or the 
Nutritive Forces, (43, 44,) by which we may account for re- 
sults like the following, reflected from the spinal cord ; and ob- 
serve that they resolve themselves into three distinct catego- 
ries, Ingestive, Egestive, and Reflexive. Thus : — 

1. Wmking, from a loud noise, or from a blow aimed at the 
eyes. 

2. Tears, from laughter, or from exquisite pain. 

3. Reaction, from the sudden application of cold. 

4. Reflex motions of paralyzfed limbs. 

4 



74 BOOK OF HUMAN NATURE. 

5. Vomiting, coughing, spasms, from titulation, and a long 
list of motions traceable to tlie impressions made on the spinal 
system, such as stranguary, and incontinence of urine ; impo- 
tence, from the loss of power, in the visiculae seminales, and 
the ejaculatories, and the act of respiration from the first to 
last, is produced by this same law. The respiratory appetite 
commences the moment the foetus comes into the world of air, 
by which it is to be fed, and from which, (together from ali- 
ment) this fluid is elaborated, and appropriated to the wants 
of the human body. And similar facts might be referred to, 
showing that changes are produced in the tissues by the nutri- 
tive jiuid, when injuries are done to the nerves. Thus, lesion 
is produced in the lungs, if the pneumagastric nerves be divid- 
ed. Magendie divided the fifth pair within the brains, and in- 
flammation and loss of sight followed, and finally the total 
loss of the eyes. 

,The next in the order is the cerebral, or mental system, 
which is evolved from the preceding Form. And this, also, 
ascends in three Degrees of Development. 

Cerebellufiii. 

59. Though this portion of the cerebral system is composed 
of two distinct brains, like the cerebrum, it is usually consid- 
ered as a part of the former, or in connection with it. How- 
ever, the light which Vivesection and Phrenology have shed 
upon its functions, would seem to have proved, beyond all 
doubt, that they constitute the sexual passion, and unite the 
motor and cerebral systems, so that the latter may act through 
the former. 

To give any considerable proportion of what might be said, 
sliowing the real functions of this organ, would fill a volume. 
The following may be taken as the summary of what seems 
now to have been generally demonstrated, by Phrenology and 
pathological investigation. 

1. The sexual passion has its seat in the cerebellum, and is 
energetic, or the reverse, in proportion to the size and tone of 
this organ. 

2. Smallness of the cerebellum, much inequality of its lobes 
and deficiency of its tone, are the cause of impotence. 

3. When the cerebellum is very small, impotence is perma- 
nent. 

4. When the cerebellum is small, it soon suffers in torte, 
if made to perform its functions with ordinary frequency. 

5. When one lobe of the cerebellum is small and the other 
large, in a man, it is sometimes the case that he, at intervals 
distant in proportion to the size of the large lobe, perfprmt the 



GENITAL. %^" 

generative act imperfectly, until the large lobe which had been 
exhausted, recovers its tone. 

6. When the cerebellum is very large and is much exerted, 
as it usually is in such cases, it becomes impaired in tone, 
and impotence is sometimes the result ; but the generative act 
may well be performed by a large cerebellum, even when im- 
paired in tone. 

7. Average endowment of the cerebellum is most favorable 
to permanent potency. 

8. When the cerebellum becomes much deficient in tone, if 
it be not soon cured, the spinal 'marrow and its nerves, the or- 
ganic nervous system, the intellect and moral feelings, are 
successively debilitated. 

9. Deficiency of tone of the cerebellum, in the male or fe- 
male, is often transmitted to the offspring. 

10. Impaired tone of the cerebellum is the cause of sper- 
matorrhea. 

11. The size of the genital organs exercises no influence on 
their activity or vigor ; they are often inert when large, and 
vigorous when small. 

12. The father of a monstrosity, an account of the post- 
mortem examination of which I published some time ago, had 
the cerebellum small and debilitated, and had also spermator- 
rhea ; he was permanently weak in the genital organs, and 
was the means of making me acquainted with many similar* 
cases and their peculiar symptoms. His wife became jealous, 
and went mad in consequence of believing that he was unfaith- 
ful, and that what was the result of debility was caused by dis- 
like of her She died in a lunatic asylum. These facts, in 
connection with remark No. 8, render it probable, in my opin- 
ion, that the subjects of abnormal organization are the pro- 
ducts of parents whose generative apparatus was diseased, 
and general health consequently impaired. I think the con- 
dition of the cerebellum, in the parents of monstrosities, 
should be observed. 

13. Permanent or frequent impotence, or even continued or 
partial debility of the genital organs, in men who have large 
self-esteem and destructiveness, and benevolence or consci- 
entiousness not very large, often produces strong selfish- 
ness or malignity, and also cunning and falsity ; for though 
secretiveness should not be large, it is so much exercised in 
these cases to conceal the symptoms of their disease, and 
preserve the reputation of virility, that it operates as if it 
predominated in size. This is in accordance with the re- 
mark of Dr. Cox, " that it seemed to be a law of the hu- 
man constitution, that when any of the faculties is pained 
or disagreeably active,*' destructiveness instantly comes into 



76 BOOK OF HUMAN NATURE. 

play. Here amativeness is mortified, and self-esteem and 
love of approbation disagreeably active, and destructiveness 
becomes consequently excited, secretiveness being active 
also, malevolence, cunning and falsehood, result. 

14. Over-exertion or exhaustion of the cerebellum, robs 
adhesiveness and combativeness of their power, and thus 
causes cowardice. 

15. Whatever exhausts the power of the constitution, 
seems not only to diminish the power of combativeness, but 
also to stimulate cautiousness. 

16. In some men, an activity of the cerebellum greater than 
■what we would expect from their temperaments and devel- 
opments, may exist for a long time without producing impo- 
tence ; here it seems to appropriate more than its own share 
of the nervous energy of the system ; the other organs of the 
body suffering a diminution of power, apparently that the 
generative apparatus may obtain an increase. 

17. The cerebellum is in general too much exercised in the 
married state. 

18. When the cerebellum is too much exercised, no matter 
what the size of it may be, it becomes impaired in tone. 

19. Men and women who have the cerebellum much below 
the average size, should not marry. 

20. Impotence is curable in all cases but where the cere- 
oellum is very small and disorganized. 

21. Fluor albus is caused by deficient tone of the cerebel- 
lum in many cases. 

22. Deficient size and tone of the cerebellum, in males or 
females, is a cause of want of liveliness and sometimes of mel- 
ancholy and madness. 

23. Disease of the cerebellum is often the real cause of ab- 
surd eccentricities. 

24. The treatment of impotence should always be directed 
with a view of its origin from the cerebellum.* 

I doubt the correctness of the conclusions numbered 2 and 
20, without some qualification, as I am convinced that impo- 
tence is often caused by the sameness in the temperaments ; 
and if so, it cannot be cured, even where there is no difii- 
cdlty in the cerebellum. 

In such case, of course, impotence must not be considered 
as the physical fault of either. The fault, if any there be, 
consists in the marriage of two persons, whose temperaments 
are so nearly alike. 

Facts are at hand to prove that the cerebellum and lower 

* Dr. Jamieson. 



THE SEXES. 



77 



■^ftions of the cerebrum, are particularly related to the mus- 
cles and limbs. Indeed, it would not be unreasonable to infer 
this fact, from what is known of the functions appropriated to 
other portions ; for, as the upper and frontal organs answer 
for intellectual functions, we might suppose that the lower por- 
tions would hold relations with the animal and lower parts of 
the system. And hence, we find that a severe blow upon the 
lower and back part of the head, rendered a man paralytic in 
his arms and legs. And it may be noticed, that paralysis of 
the lower part of the body, even when arising from lesion in 
the corresponding portions of the brain, does not affect the 
mental functions at all. 

* Male and Female. 

60. The sexes are determined by the predominance of the 
first or third elements inherent in all forms of matter. The 
love principle is female, because it attracts, receives and 
evolves ; hence it is light and life. The wisdom principle is 
male, because it gives ; hence wisdom is order and form, and 
the perfection of love. And hence it is, that all forms sustain 
the relation to one another of male and female, thus corres- 
ponding with all the phenomena of life, and the nature of 
things. The forms of organic, motive and cerebral life, are 
double and correspond : 



Heart — Artery. 
1. The sohible and nutritious 
portion of the food passes from the 
digestive tube into the lacteals, 
and through the mesenteric glands 
and thoracic duct into the left sub- 
clavian vein. 



2. It is a large artery which 
takes the blood to the lungs. 

3. To this artery a heart is pre- 
fixed. 

4. Into the heart large venous 
roots go — the cavae. 

5. Out of the heart comes an 
artery, the pulmonary or cardiapul- 
monic. 

6. The reverse or contrary of the 
artery is the vein. 

7. The blood-vessel going to the 
lungs, consisting of a heart and an 
artery, produces a constant and 
rapid motion of the blood through 
the capillaries of the lungs. 



Spleen — Vein. 

1. The soluble nutritious por- 
tion of the food, as well as the 
drink, passes from the tube into 
the intestinal capillaries, and 
through the mesenteric veins into 
the middle of the trunk of that 
great vein, whose roots are in the 
spleen and whose branches are 
in the liver. 

2. It is a large vein which takes 
the blood to the liver. 

3. To this vein a spleen is pre- 
fixed. 

4. Into the spleen small arterial 
branches go — the branches of the 
splenic artery. 

6. Out of the spleen comes a 
vein, the splenic or splenohepatic. 

6. The reverse or contrary of 
the heart is the spleen. 

7. The blood-vessel going to the 
liver, consisting of a spleen and a 
vein, produces an intermittent and 
slow motion of the blood through 
the capillaries of the liver.* 



* Mr. Jackson, liondou Lancet. 



f8 



BOOK OF iiUMAK NATURE. 



In life, therefore, we have a series of alternating phenomena, 
tvhich perfectly correspond with the other phenomena of na- 
ture, such as motion and rest, cold and heat, waking and sleep- 
ing, day and night, male and female, positive and negative,! 
centripetal and centrifugal motions, which appertain to matter 
universally ; and then we have the antagonizing functions, in- 
clinations, tendencies, hopes, volitions, occupations, views and 
feelings, which we find in human nature, and according to the 
Constitution of things. (10.) 

Oeiieration. 

61. As the nervous forms are generated, througljK which 
mind is manifested, it follows that the mind itself is affected 
and modified, as the case may be, by all those states and cir- 
cumstances which tend to affect the health, habits, and mental 
condition of parents, and especially of mothers during the 
period of gestation. Indeed, in the features, the dispositions, 
the habits and health of children, we may always see ample 
demonstrations of the truth of what is here assumed. There 
is now living in the State of Vermont, a man over thirty years 
of age, who, though he talks freely with every body else, has 
never been able to speak to his own father, while looking him 
in the face ! When he first began to talk, it was noticed that 
when his father attempted to talk with him, he invariably 
turned his head the other way, and has never once been able 
to speak to his father while looking him in the face, from that 
time to the present ! And, indeed, till he was thirty yeafs of 
age, he was never able to speak to his father at all ; though 
since that time, he has spoken to him when his back was 
turned towards him ! Two months before he was born, his 
father came into the house behind his mother, and addressed 
her in very severe and opprobrious language. It very much 
excited her resistance, and looking round, she attempted to 
reply, but was literally choked with indignation. The impres- 
sion which her mind made upon the nervous system of that 
foetus, has now lasted more than thirty years — sufficiently long, 
certainly, to demonstrate the truth of the doctrine I am here 
attempting to inculcate. 

Materiial. 

62. Whatever occupies the mind of the mother with a cer- 
tain degree of intensity^ at particular tinies during the period 
of gestation, will be sure to make an impression upon the phy- 
sical and mental systems of the child. Hence, the danger of 
ugly or disagreeable objects. The Lacedemonians were ac- 
customed to place beautiful statues in the rooms with their 



CEREBRUM. 79 

pregnant wives, and the same law governs animals, if we may 
credit the Bible account of Jacob. During this period conju- 
gal abuses should be avoided. Departures from the law of 
absolute continence, are attended, always with mischievous 
results, both to the mother and the child. (62.) 

I^erves of External Sense. 

62. These, again, are threefold. 1. Feeling, which is the 
first excited, (after birth,) from the air, and the sense of 
hunger. 2. Hearing, which is next excited. 3. And then 
the sense of sight. Taste and smell are mere modifications of 
Feeling. As these are the avenues through which impressions 
are first made upon the mind, the mental manifestations are 
deficient, as one or more of these senses are wanting, in cases 
where the mind is not developed and matured before the sense 
is lost. 

Cerebrum. 

64. The next degree develops the brains, proper, which are 
also double ; — one complete brain filling each (right and left) 
side of the skull.* And here, too, we find the same three- 



* Edwin Weston, of Belchertown, Mass., had his brains literally 
divided by a circular saw, March 21, 1834. He was theu eighteen 
years of age, and at work near the saw, and stooping down under it, 
he thoughtlessly raised his head, suddenly, against the saw, while it 
was in rapid motion. It entered directly upon the falciform process, 
commertcmg in the frontal, an inch from the lower parts of the hair, 
and extended back 'eight and one half inches towards the occipital 
bone ! About a table spoonful of cerebral matter exuded from the 
fissure. He was unconscious till the next day, though not without 
sensation, as he complained considerably during the dressing of the 
wound. He was under the medical treatment of Dr. Thomson till the 
next June, when he was pronounced well. He had fits, however, 
occasionally, afterwards, till he was trepanned by Dr. Mott. He is 
now living, and well, without any apparent injury to his mind. — 
Letter of JDr. Thoinson to the author, July 21, 1847. 

In the Spiritual Philospher, for Dec. 14, 1850, will be found a case 
quoted from the American Medical .Journal, of Mr. PhineasP. Gage, 
of Rutland, Vt., who, while blasting rocks, had an iron crowbar, three 
feet and a half long, weighing more than thirteen pounds in weight, 
blown through his head ! And yet, that same Phineas P. Gage is 
now (1852,) living and perfectly well. The whole of this immense 
-weight and length — this bar, or bludgeon of iron — was driven through 
Gage's face and brain, as he stooped over the hole in the act of 
tamping with sand. It struck him on tlie left cheek, iust behind and 
below the mouth, ascended into the brain behind the left eye, passing 
from the skull, which it shattered and raised up, " like an inverted 
funnel," for a distance of about two inches in every direction around 
the wound, flew through the air, and was picked up by the workmen, 
*' covered with blood and brains," several rods behmd where he stood. 



80 BOOK OF HUMAN NATURE. 

fold degrees of development ; the lowest corresponding to the 
love principle, the next to the will power, and the last and 
highest to wisdom, intelligence. And in these forms we find, 
also, an advance in the qualities in the matter ; for it is only in 
the higher forms that the cortical or grey nervous matter is 
found, in which the motions are originated which constitute 
POWER, or Intellectuality. 

We have numerous accounts of foetuses that have been born, 
and lived for some time without any cerebrum, at all ! And 
of other cases where the whole of the cerebral mass has been 
let out of the cranium, for the purpose of facilitating delivery, 
and yet life has remained some hours afterwards. The fact 
that foetuses are sometimes born without any brains, or spinal 
chord, does not, certainly, seem to favor the assumption that 
the cerebrum is the point from which all the nerves originate 
in the sense some have supposed. 

That vitality does not depend so much upon the brains — 
and, indeed, that all the functions of the vital or animal econo- 
my may be carried on, for a time, without them, — is further 
proved from the fact that all the other parts of the body are 
formed, and considerably developed, even before the brains and 
spinal chord have assumed any degree of consistence, more 
than the white of an egg, and consequently are utterly incapa- 
ble of any functional power. Magendie mentions the case of 
a girl, who lived to the age of eleven years, with the use of 
her senses, and with feeble voluntary motion, but sufficient for 
her wants and progression. After death, no cerebellum nor 
mesocephalon could be found. 

Another case is mentioned by Blumenbach, of a twin female 
foetus, born without any head, arms, blood vessels, or thorax. 
It was born alive, for it repeatedly extended and bent its legs, 
before it died.* 

In 1673, M. Duverney removed the cerebrum and cerebel- 
lum from a pigeon, and found that the animal lived for some 
time, and searched for its food. Mr. Lawrence saw a child 
four days old, without any encephalon except a mere bulb, 
which was a continuation for about an inch above the foramen 
occipitale from the spinal chord. Its breathing and tempera- 
ture were natural. f Mr. Oliver saAV another case of the same 
deficiency, and the child not only cried and sucked, but 
squeezed with its hand ; and another is mentioned -^by Lolle- 
mand, which lived three days. 

Dr. Kaan, a century since, observed a frog move all its 
limbs half an hour after its head had been cut off, and even after 

* Dr. EUiotson, Hu. Phys. p. 793. 
-t Mod. Cbir. Trans, vol. v. p. 166. 



DECUSSATION. 81 

its body had been divided in two. Fontana declares that after 
removing the brains of a turtle, and entirely emptying the 
cranium, it lived six months, and walked as before. Mr. 
Flurens took both hemispheres from a chicken, and yet it 
walked, flew, shook its wings, and cleaned them with its beak 
as before. A viper, after decapitation, moved towards a 
heap of stones, where it had been accustomed to hide itself. 
Rede extracted the brains of a land tortoise, and it lived and 
walked for six months afterwards. Magendie says, " It is 
droll to see animals skip and jump about of their own accord, 
after you have taken out all their brains, a little before the op- 
tic tubercles. New-born kittens tumble over in all directions, 
and walk so nimbly, if you cut out their hemispheres, that it 
is quite astonishing." And he speaks of a hedgehog which 
gratified him in this way two hours after the operation ! 

We are told, that in foetuses full grown, without any ence- 
phalon, or even spinal chord, the circulation, nutrition, secre- 
tions, &c., proceed equally as in others, which, besides a spi- 
nal chord and ganglia, possess also brains. These facts would 
seem conclusive against the supposition that the brains are a 
kind of galvanic battery, which supply vitality, or nervous 
power, to the other portions of the system. As the cere- 
brum is the last part formed, or matured, it is reasonable to 
suppose that its relation to the body is secondary when com- 
pared with the heart and other organs in that region. It is 
certainly a law of nature that those organs, in living bodies, 
should be first developed, whose functions are most essential 
in the vital economy ; and hence, we find the formations com- 
mence with the solar plexus, the ganglia of the dorsal region, 
together with the heart and blood vessels.* 

Decussation. 

65. The muscles, limbs and organs, are controlled by the 
brain on the opposite side of the body ; that is, the right brain 
corresponds with the left side, and the left brain with the right 
side, and the muscles are moved through these associations or 
relations, which exist between different portions of the same 
muscles, and also, between these and the cerebral nerves, 
whose activity develops the mind. From which it follows, 
that there is a reciprocal influence between the different nerves 

* Dr. K, Nelson states, that on dissecting two moles, he found the 
optic nerve did not extend to the brains. If these animals do not iiso 
the eye, there is no necessity for connecting the eye with the brains. 
On the same principle of nature, we find the fish in the celebrated 
Mammoth Cave, in Kentucky, have no eyes — simply because they 
have no use for them. 

4* 



82 BOOK OF HUMAN NATUEE. 

and the other organs of the entire system ; and hence it is 
that the state of one organ or part is changed by the state of 
another, with which it is associated.. 

PUysiogiioiiiy. 

66. These sympathetic relations or associations develop the 
nerves and muscles, hot of the face merely, but of the entire 
system, and thus it is that the Mind from within, evolves and 
shapes the contour of the whole body without, moulding and 
Constituting the form of the Head, Face, Eyes, Nose, Mouth, 
Ears, and each of the Features, and hence the science of 
Physiognomy is founded in the very nature and constitution 
of the human mind ; as both animals and men instinctively 
(102) judge of the mind within the body from the signs which that 
same mind has evolved in the features of the body without. 

It is curious to see with what mathematical ejfactness the 
angular and circular motions are developed in the physiogno- 
my of the human body. Thus, by drawing lines from various 
points in the face, you will make triangles which will be equi- 
lateral only when the forms are perfectly developed. One is 
made from the centre of the chin to the corners of the mouth ; 
another from the corners of the mouth to the centre of the 
nose. Standing erect and stretching the arms out at right 
angles, an equilateral triangle is made by drawing a lihfe 
from the ends of the fingers to the centre between the feet. 

I¥ervoti§ A§!Sociatio]is. 

67. The Laws of association are always concerned in the 
evolution of nervous phenomena. (34, 35.) Thus, the cere- 
bral and spinal nerves, and the nerves of the special senses, are 
so associated, that an impression made upon one necessarily 
affects the other. And associations are established between 
different parts by disease, so that the mind becomes conscious 
of the state of parts between which and the cerebral system 
there is no direct nervous connection. (39.) As life itself is 
the result of associated motions, so the different organs of the 
animal and mental economy are excited by these same laws of 
association. Thus, when light is associated with the optic 
nerve expanded upon the retina, we have the sense of sight; 
when odors are associated with the olfactory ne,rves, we have 
the sense of smell ; when the vibrations of air reach the 
auditory nerves, we have the sense of hearing ; or, rather, 
when the mind is associated with these nerves, and they 
sympathize with the sound, we hear ; and when the mind is 
associated with the optic nerves, and thus sympathizes with the 
rays of light that impinge upon them, we have the sense of 



SYMPATHY. 83 

sight and sound. And so of each of the senses ; it is only 
when the mind is associated with their appropriate nerves, that 
-those nerves have motion, or become active and receive im- 
pressions made upon them. 

Respiration, Circulation. 

68. These laws prevail throughout the system. When the 
air is associated with the mucous membrane of the bronchia, it 
produces respiration ; and so of the circulation of the blood 
from breathing. The blood associated with the sentient nerves 
expanded on the lining membranes of the heart and arteries, 
causes the contraction of the muscular fibres ; and this, with 
the expansion produced by the heat generated in breathing, 
induces and keeps up the alternate motions of this fluid, and 
the organs concerned in its ebbing and flowing through thp 
system. And thus, also, with the sense oi feeling, taste, and 
the peristaltic motion of the bowels, so that all nervous, 
muscular, or physical changes which take place in the human 
body, are the resultant phenomena of the laws of association. 

Sympathy. 

69. In these laws of association, also, we have the philoso- 
phy of mental and physical sympathy, and hence we apply 
this term to all those results that we can trace directly or 
indirectly to mental or physical associations. These laws of 
association or sympathy between the vital organs and the 
substances which nourish the system, such as air and food, 
keep up the phenomena of life. Their disturbance produces 
disease, and their destruction, death. 

That nature's laws have originated this term, or that it has 
been used to signify those relations in the constitution of 
things,' which cause nature's phenomena, is manifest, how- 
ever unwilling many may be to admit the appropriateness in 
the use of this term. It is one which we apply, both to 
signify causes and effects, to things below and above, thus : — 

1. To the physical world. We are accustomed to say, there 
is sympathy between the iron and loadstone, between the 
magnetic needle and the north pole. 

2. The organic world. It is said to be sympathy where 
there is a similar state, or "consent of parts," when one organ 
is affected by the condition of another. 

3. In the mental world. Here it is used to signify a fellow 
feeling, an agreement in the affections. Love, friendship, 
feeling for another in distress. 

Hence it would seem justifiable, always, to use this terra 
when speaking of results which we can tra-ce to a relatioij, 
direct or indirect, between two persons, minds, or bodies.^ 



84 BOOK OF HUMAN NATUKE. 



Individuality. 

70. It is exceedingly interesting to trace the degrees of 
development in nervous forms, and notice how regularly one 
succeeds, and is evolved by the other ; so that the brains of 
the foetus may be traced from one degree to another, through 
that of the fish, bird, and all the mammalia, till it reaches that 
form in which we find it developed, in an evenly-balanced, 
well-governed, intelligent mind. 

1. Thus, having traced, as it were, nature's method by which 
the human organism is perfected out of the individual king- 
doms (19) which are below, it may be well to pause here, and 
reflect upon that vast elevation upon which man finds himself 
placed in the constitution of his being. It is worthy of notice, 
that, in the most ancient theological writings of which we have 
any knowledge, it is affirmed, that " God made man in his 
own image.^'' In what sense this is emphatically true, men 
do not comprehend till they come to understand the sove- 
reignty of their individuality. If the Divine, himself, be su- 
preme in that sense, that He is distinct in his Personality, 
there being " none other besides Him ;" then it must follow, 
that if man be created in His image, he must, not only cor- 
respond to Him in the number of his elements, but, also, in 
their oneness, or the perfection of their organism. So that 
man is so distinct in his form, internal and external, that his 
oneness can neither be diffused and thus lost in the general 
mass, nor can it be dissolved by any laws in the universe of 
being, because the perfection or laws of his organization are 
far above any and all other laws that could have any such 
tendency. If, therefore, God, himself, be an Individual, so 
must Man be, whom He has developed in His own image. 

2. This doctrine of individuality is, also, as we have seen, 
the order of nature throughout the universe. (19.) Each 
kingdom is individualized and distinct by itself at the same 
time ; one and all hold corresponding relations to each other. 
While, therefore nature comprehends an infinite variety of 
forms, degrees, and spheres, she proclaims the doctrine of 
individualism, as inherent, fundamental, and eternal through- 
out the vast dominions of her realm. There are, there can 
be, no two kingdoms precisely the same, no two perfect or- 
ganisms exactly alike. 

3. As this doctrine of individual sovereignty is the natural 
and legitimate development of nature's laws of eternal pro- 
gression, so it is that part of nature's work, over which man 
has no control. He did not originate himself. Hence, the 
laws by which he is brought into his individuality, ar« Fate to 



THE SENSES. 85 

him, and this is the good of which he becomes conscious in 
the maturity of his manhood. 

4. This doctrine is the true basis oi freedom, social, univer- 
sal freedom. As an individual, Man (that is when matured 
from adolescence,) is free and independent of all other men, 
having the inherent and inalienable right to think and act for 
himself; conditioned that he have respect to other indivi- 
dualities like himself; and, that he shall alvi'ays bear the cost 
of his own conduct. 

5. As this doctrine of manhood is the only true foundation 
of all personal freedom, so it is the fundamental law^ in the 
order of society. For a want of this knowledge, and the full 
development of this principle, have arisen all the antagonism 
of society ; all wars, all those bitter sectarian persecutions, 
religious and political murders that have marked the infancy 
of the race. (95. ) It lies at the foundation of all their social 
reforms, and must be believed, appreciated, and acted out, and 
will be, indeed, in humanities, millennium, when the race, as 
such, is developed into one family, united, happy and free.* 

Abnormal Action of tlie Senses. 

71. That Sensation is constituted by the chemical arrange- 
ment of the nervous matter, produced by the motions of the 
nutritive forces, is susceptible of the clearest demonstration. 

We have seen, that the direction given to the motions of the 
nutritive power, produces excitement, or the reverse. (48, 50.) 
Also that the lower forms evolve the higher. (19.) Hence it fol- 
lows that the higher must supersede and control the lower, 
from which they have been developed. The motions which 
constitute mental life (59) must control, excite, or suspend the 
motions of sensation. And hence, we find each of the senses 
of sight, hearing and feeling, effectually suspended by the mo- 
tions of the mind, in cases of what is called reverie ; or when 
the attention becomes fixed, in a certain degree. 

Fix the mind through one sense, and it suspends each of the 
others. That is, if the mind be intent on the sense of sight, 
the sense of hearing is suspended ; if the attention be fixed on 
hearing, the sight is suspended. Hence you cease to notice 
what does not interest the mind, like the ticking of a clock, 
and the noise of machinery to which you are much accustom- 
ed. Soldiers, in time of battle, lose all sense of fear, and 
even of feeling, for, often when wounded, they know nothing 
of it till some time after. Fixing the attention, suspends this 



* Kead two books written by Henry C. Wrightj entitled " Anthro- 
pology, or the Science of Man ;" and " Human Life." 



86 BOOK OF HUMANT IfATURE. 

sense, in cases of fascination and trance. Any person, whose 
temperament is such as to enable him to fix his attention suffi- 
ciently, may thereby control his own nervous system, so as to 
prevent the sense of pain during surgical operations performed 
on his own body. In this way, sleep or trance may be self- 
induced, and in this very way it is often induced, more often 
than in any other. Hence the notions about a " fluid," " mag- 
netic" or nervous, supposed to be eliminated out of, or into, a 
somnambulist, (in the manner supposed under the name of 
" mesmerism,") who is put ^nto this state by " manipulation," 
are unfounded. 

Fuiictioit§ of tlie Nutritive Fluid. 

72. There is, however, one kind of fluid, which is trans- 
ferred, not out. of the patient, (who controls his own sensa- 
tions as 1 have stated) but from the nerves of sensation, to 
the Mental Organs, concerned in bringing about that state, 
such as firmness, and resistance. This is the nutritive fluid, 
which supplies all parts of the system with their functional 
powers. That this fluid is accumulated in parts upon which 
the mind is concentrated, and in organs which are excited, is 
evident from what takes place, from mental emotions, in cases 
of inflammation, blushing, erection, &c. And this assump- 
tion is sufficient to account for what occurs in cases of exhaus- 
tion, from long continued exertions of the mind or body. The 
nutritive fluid is exhausted faster than generated, and hence 
the weakness that follows. 

]>egrees of Sensation. 

73. Sensation is suspended by cold and by chemical agents, 
while consciousness and the mind remain the same. It is of- 
ten so, where sulphuric ether is given to render persons insen- 
sible during surgical operations. The insensibility may be 
local, general, or total. By applying ice to any part of the 
system, the sensation is thereby suspended. And inhaling 
sulphuric ether enough to change the chemical condition of the 
blood,*' upon which sensation depends, a state of general or 
total insensibility is thereby produced ; at the same time, the 
mind may remain perfectly conscious of what is going on. 
Hence we see that sensation is developed in three degrees. 

1. jPeeZzn^, merely, or touch. This may be destroyed while 
the next sense remains. 

2. «Sen5e, as of cold, heat, pain, &c. 

3. Consciousness, of what is passing in the mind. 

* London Lancet, July, 1847, p. 86. 



. 



CONSCIOUSNESS. 87 

The perfection of sensation evolves consciousness, which, 
like the lower degrees of sensation, may be excited or entirely 
suspended by mechanical, chemical, and mental motions. 

Suspension of tlae ISenses. 

74. 1. Mechanically; as by a blow upon the head, or the 
epigastrium, and gun-shot wounds. It is said, by those fami- 
liar with battles, that, when the body is struck by a ball, after 
it has spent its force from the cannon's mouth, the flesh is 
often mangled, and the patient lives some time ; but, when the 
ball strikes the body immediately, though the system may be 
scarcely injured at all, yet consciousness and life together are 
knocked out of it in an instant of time. 

2. Chemically. Precisely the same effects are produced by 
miasma, antimony, sulphuric ether, &c. 

3. Mental effects. Consciousness is suspended through the 
mind by horror, terror, anger, fear, joy, &c. Now how is 
this 1 Here are exactly the same changes brought about in 
the nervous system, by the mind, that are produced by motion, 
or mechanical blows, and by chemical poisons ! Thus demon- 
strating, beyond all doubt, the nature of consciousness, which 
is the degree of form and motion from which the human mind 
is developed. 

That 1 am correct in these assumptions, I think will appear 
if we Consider that motion, alone, exercises chemical proper- 
ties, always. (27.) The sublimation of the nervous matter, 
into those forms which constitute consciousness, arranges its 
particles into that condition which makes them susceptible to 
sound, and sound may then change their direction, and thus 
alter their chemical properties. 

Hxciteinent. 

75. Motion evolves heat, as does the change of bodies. (15-, 
19.) Heat is excitement, inflammation ; or it is an increase 
of the nutritive fluid, beyond the wants of the parts to which 
it is attracted. (54.) Now we know that all extra excitement 
in the brains, increase consciousness. (52, 53.) Cold, there- 
fore, disposes to sleep and insensibility, except when suddenly 
applied, when the system is not chilled ; if applied when the 
temperature is up, it produces reaction, and thus excites con- 
sciousness. Less heat is evolved in sleep ; and hybernating 
animals are much lower in their temperature than others. 
Sound, or the thoughts which excite the mind, thus produce 
motion, heat, excitement, activity, wakefulness. Blumen* 
bach* saw a man, a large part of whose skull had been remo- 

* Phys. Am. Ed. p. 220. 



88 BOOK OF HUMAN NATURE. 

ved ; and, when aroused from sleep, he could see his brains 
extended by the blood rushing into them ; and, when he fell 
asleep, the blood subsided and his brains shrunk in their di- 
mensions. In irritations of the brains, there is no sleep. 
These facts not only show the nature of the change under- 
gone, when consciousness is suspended, as in cases of som- 
nambulism, but they show also how this change may be pro- 
duced. 

Double Senses. 

76 We have, in the above, the rationale of what has been 
called " double consciousness," and somnambulism. External 
consciousness is suspended, while the activity of the mind 
remains ; and when the normal state returns, there is (it may 
be) no recollection of what has taken place, because it was 
not associated, in the memory, with the normal waking state. 
See what is said on sleep, (52) and dreaming. ( 45. ) 

Double Brains. 

77. There may be often, also, a division in the memory of 
consciousness, produced by the alternate activities of the two 
brains, in each side of the cranium. One may be in its natural 
state, while the other is in an abnormal condition, and hence 
the memories of both must differ ; and thus we may see the 
foundation for the reports which have been made of cases of 
" double consciousness," so called, as many such have been 
published from time to time. (114, 46. ) 

Soul, Mind, Spirit. 

78. The threefold, elementary constitution of man's internal 
nature, seems to give some authority for designating it by 
these three different terms, as there is a sense in which each of 
them may be appropriately used to signify a degree above, or 
below the other. I arrange them in the order which nature 
appears herself to have indicated ; though we know, indeed, 
that these terms are often used synonymously. 

The soul is the life of the human body, and corresponds to 
love. The mind is the life of the soul, and corresponds to 
will. The spirit is the life or the inmost of the mind and cor- 
responds to wisdom. In each, there are, also, three degrees 
of development, corresponding to the three elements of matter 
and the great first cause of all. The fundametal essential 
elements, therefore, of the human form are love, will, and 
wisdom, and which are developed and manifested, in cor- 
responding nervous organisms, constituting the human brains, 
as we have seen. Let us consider them, each in their order 
(64.) 



THE LOVE PKINCIPLE. 89 



The Soul,— liove Principle. 

79. The first element, constituting the hmnan soul, is the 
love principle, which is light and /e/e. This principle, as we 
have seen, develops ascending and extending forms and de- 
grees, which evolve all the emotions, volitions, and actions which 
constitute the sensibilities, mental powers and intelligence of 
the human mind, or which develop the body, and make the 
nature of man. 

1. Instinctive liOve. 

80. Instinctive love develops corresponding degrees. 

1. Ingestive. Including all those instinctive motions of 
the animal economy, by which air and food are received, and 
digested, for the supply of the wants of the organism, the per- 
formance of its various functions, and the development of its 
parts. 

2. Retentive. Including all those motions and volitions, 
voluntary or involuntary, which retain what instinct has 
acquired ; which contract the sphincter muscles ; and keep the 
organism in a suitable position against the laws of gravitation ; 
and maintain the tissues against the destructive force of 
oxygen which tends to interrupt the processes of nutrition. 

3. Egestive. Including all those emotions, volitions, and 
actions which exclude, or expel, from the lungs, bowels, pores, 
the refuse matter from which the nutritive fluid has been 
separated by the ingestive motions ; and, also, by which light, 
or any offending substance, is excluded from either of the 
external senses. 

And thus are developed all the organs, functions, and mo- 
tions, which are combined in the life and form of the human 
body. The next degree develops the external senses. 

2. Sensuous I^ove. 

81. Or all those emotions, volitions, and actions, compre- 
hended in, and which have respect to, the senses. And these, 
also, ascend in corresponding degrees, from what is merely 
animal, up to the mental, and spiritual. 

1. Instinctive. Including all those emotions which gratify 
the animal sensations ; such as the love of life, food, smell, 
agreeable temperature ; playfulness, friendship, &c. 

2. Retentive. Those emotions and volitions, which are de- 
signed to conserve the sensuous life, such as fear, resistance ; 
defence, protection ; sense of pain ; cunning, deception, deceit ; 
disguise, firmness, self-esteem. 

3. Relative. Those emotions, volitions, arid action?, which 



BOOK OF HUMAN NATURE. 



constitute and manifest, sagacity, aversion, anger, hatred, 
cruelty, tyranny, retribution, destructiveness. 

Tiiese manifestations are common to the higher forms in the 
animal kingdom, and to such human beings, more or less, 
whose minds are imperfectly developed, and who, consequently, 
are not governed by the dictates of »uperior wisdom. 



RECEPTiVE MENTAL EMOTIONS. 91 



THE HUMAN MIND. 

CONSCIOUSNESS, INTELLIGENCE, REASON 



Receptive Meiital Emotions. 

82. This class includes all those mental motions which 
appertain to the inner man, and which feed and gratify the 
mind, in itself considered. Every mind has its idiosyncrasy, 
its peculiar appetite, which is fed, and from which the mind is 
gratified and developed into other degrees of good or evil, as 
the case may be. 

2. Retentive Mental Volitions. 

83. Including all those emotions and volitions of the mind 
that relate to itself, its self-government : those volitions which 
retain and keep within the mind its own interior actions, so 
that they may not become known to others. 

3. Relative Mental Actions. 

84. Including all those emotions, volitions, and actions 
which the mind manifests to other minds for its own gratifica- 
tion. And thus may be seen the origin of all emotions, voli- 
tions and actions which are conceived and developed from the 
human mind. Without an exception, they each and all origi- 
nate in the element of love, from which they are evolved, and 
become the element of will ; and will evolves and develops 
the element of wisdom, which directs to the ways and means 
by which the will may gratify the elements of love. External 
agencies operate upon love through the external senses, so 
that in all cases where an emotion arises, as we say, spon- 
taneously in the mind, it is the motion of love ; or, if the im- 
pression is received from external associations, it is received 
and responded to by love through will alone ; or by will under 
the direction of wisdom. And in this manner the mind is self- 
moved, and may change its own conditions and manifestations. 
Thus :— 



92 BOOK OP HUMAN NATURE. 

1. "What love most desires, the will-power executes. It is 
so in all animals, infants, children and adults, who act without 
wisdom. 

2. When the love is feeble, the will-power corresponds ; 
hence, what the mind does not much desire, the will-power is 
not much exerted to obtain. And hence it is, that love and 
will, are spoken of as often signifying one and the same ele- 
ment of mind. 

3. When wisdom is developed, it is for the purpose of showing 
in what way love should be gratified. Wisdom corresponds 
to light, and truth, justice. And here we see in what the 
greatest happiness of every human mind consists — it is in the 
harmonious action of love and wisdom. All those intelligences 
are necessarily and perfectly holy and happy, whose will exe- 
cutes exactly what their love demands under the direction of 
their wisdom. 

Self-Coiitrol. 

85. The greater controls the less — the higher element is 
evolved from and controls the one below, when it becomes a 
perfect form, and is perfectly developed. Hence, if love de- 
sire to suspend the motions of sensation, the will-power does 
this when wisdom guides the way. Or, if love desire a state 
of utter unconsciousness of all the external senses, the will- 
power may suspend them by withdrawing the nutritive forces 
from the external senses, and concentrating them in the ele- 
ment of will for the time being. And this is precisely what 
the will-power does in cases of spontaneous somnambulism, 
and trance ; so that the mind in this way brings on upon itself, 
sleep, insensibility, grief, or joy, according as the will-power 
controls and directs the nutritive fluid, to the different locali- 
ties, and functions of the nervous system. (74, 75.). 

Poiver— Will Principle. 

86. With the true idea of mind is associated, the will, force, 
or power principle. 

1. The will principle is power and motion, and when devel- 
oped in the cerebral system, it performs all those volitions and 
actions which gratify the love through the mental senses, 
such as forms, orders, comparisons, or degrees, method, 
mathematics, system, language, individuality, music, imitation, 
poetry, symmetry, wit, mirth, history. 



INTELLECTUALITY. 93 



Tbe Life of tine Mind. 

87. The love element is the first ; hence in this degree, 
or the sphere of this element, we find men more distinguished 
from the higher forms in the animal kingdom. 

1. Receptive. Including what is considered, constitutional ; 
those emotions which develop the love of praise ; precious 
things; keepsakes; relics; adhesiveness; desire for infor- 
mation. 

2. Retentive. Those emotions and volitions, which consti- 
tute covetousness ; secretiveness ; caution ; circumspection. 

3. Relative. Including those emotions, volitions, and ac- 
tions which gratify the mind through the senses, as the love 
of music, traveling, antiquities, painting, poetry, gardening, 
architecture, waterfalls, statuary, volcanoes, caverns, the 
heavens, the earth, animals, birds, insects, storms, battles, the 
ocean, fruits, flowers, meteors, landscapes, pyramids, &c., &c. 

And each of these degrees enter more or less into the will, 
and wisdom, and thus develop corresponding results as we 
shall see. 

Intellectuality. 

88. As the mind advances, its motions are characteristic of 
intellectuality : — 

Including all those forms, degrees, and spheres of which the 
intelligence takes cognizance ; for the mind, or the intellect, 
not only loves in degrees, but its love or desires in their intel- 
lectuality, are gratified in extending and ascending forms, de- 
grees, and spheres, according to the developments of the in- 
tellectual capacities ; so that the mind is gratified in ascending 
and extending forms and degrees from things up to life and 
mind ; thus 1. From sensuous minds to 2. Intelligent minds, 
and 3. The spiritually minded ; hence we see how it is, that 
minds in the same degree of development, will necessarily 
assimilate or feel an attraction for each other. The purely 
intellectual emotions, volitions and actions, therefore, all ar- 
range themselves in corresponding degrees, as we shall see. 

1* Intellectual Bmotions. 

89. Receptive, or such as gratify self-love, ambition, self- 
confidence, imagination, ideality, faith, marvelousness, the 
beautiful, joy, industry. 

2. Intellectual Tolitions. 

90. Retentive, or all such as gratify the memory of names, 
persons, ideas, and the capacity for synthesis, generalization, 
coiiservativencBS, modesty, contentment, patience. 



f4 BOOK OF HUMAN NATURE. 



3. Intellectual Manifestations. . 

91. Relative, including all those emotions and volitions 
which result in the corresponding actions, constituting yespect, 
veneration, worship, friendship, conjugal aifection, forgiveness, 
truth, justice, melody, harmony, invention, causality, judgment, 
analysis, constructiveness, hope, suavity, gratitude, cheerful- 
ness, compassion, perfection. And thus is developed ^k& 
third or higher faculties of the human mind. 



INTELLECTUAL. 9^ 



THE HUMAN SPIRIT. 

KNOWLEDGE, INTUITION, PREVISION. 



Wisdom Principle. 

92. The human spirit is order and form, and corresponds 
with the developments below. It is the perfection of love, or 
light and life ; it is the manifestation of the order and form, 
peculiar to the individual mind, and it extends and ascends, in 
forms, and degrees, corresponding with the elements from 
which it has been evolved. 

That which one does, or the form in which it is done, 
determines the degree or sphere in which his wisdom principle, 
or spirit, is developed. 

Emotioiis. 

93. Including all those instinctive constitutional emotions 
which feed, and gratify the spirit, the peculiar disposition of 
the individual, c<>rresponding with the ingestive or receptive 
motions of the animal and mental forms, already described. 
The spirit is satisfied, only, with a spiritual atmosphere, aoid 
spiritual food. 

'What is liove ? 

94. And as this element is- developed in the human organism 
in harmony, it becomes more and more conscious of its own 
essence, and comprehends what love is. 

" Love is the first or rudimental element of the human soul. 
It is that liquid, mingling, delicate, inexplicable element which 
is felt in the depths of every human spirit, because it is its 
germinal essence."* 

" Love is the weapon which Omnipotence reserved to con- 



t 4,. J. Pftiris. 



96 BOOK OF HUMAN NATURE. 

quer rebel men when all else had failed. Reason he parries ; 
Fear he answers blow to blow ; Future Interest he meets with 
Pleasure ; but Love, that sun against whose melting beams 
Winter cannot stand, that soft, subduing slumber which 
wrestles down the giant, there is not one human creature in 
a million, not a thousand men in earth's large quintillion, 
whose clay heart is hardened against Love."* 

There are, so to speak, as many varieties of this emotion, as 
there are faculties in the human mind. But we speak now 
only of that which is developed in the domestic relations of 
life — conjugal, parental, fraternal, a,nd filial. 

If music be the language of Love, always, then poetry may 
be its form. The Love element is in the sound, and the 
wisdom element in the words. Here is conjugal Love ; 

" O never, dearest, never till the beating 

Of this poor heart, which throbs for thee, is o'er ; 
Never, till iny soul, from life retreating, 
Takes up its death-march for the spirit-shore. 

" Then, as thy lips shall kiss me to my slumber. 

As, on Life's verge, I say the long ' Good Night,' 
How will thy love my struggling spirit cumber. 
While the world reels and changes on my sight. 

" Yet, in the distant bourne, where, broken-hearted. 
Thou shalt deem, happily, that my soul hath rest, 
Can I but meet thee when life hath departed, 
My sin-sick spirit shall be doubly blessed." 

The grave-yard is a good place for finding records of affec- 
tion. In such places, we may often see traced upon the 
marble, the external expression of that principle which makes 
heaven, wherever it dwells. Here is an instance, from Mount 
Auburn : 

" Thy memory, thou loved one, 
How sacred, how dear; 
Thy virtues shall live. 

Though thy dust slumbers here. 
Till the last setting sun. 

O'er my lone heart shall roll, 
Shall I cherish thy worth. 
Thou friend of my soul." 

We venture the opinion, that but few persons ever read the 
above, who did not become conscious of an emotion which they 
always feel the more happy for indulging. 



* Tupper's " Crock of Gold. 



THE HUMAN SPIRIT. 97 

Here is another, from the same place : 

" She lived unknown, and few could know 
"When Mary ceased to be ; 
But she is m her grave, and O 
The difference to me." 

Cowper's lines written on the receipt of his mother's picture, 
and the " May Queen," are beautiful expressions of the filial. 
To have been the author of either of those pieces, I should 
consider more honor than attaches to any, or all that ever fell 
from my pen. To read the " May Queen," is enough to break 
up the deep fountains of parental love ; but to hear it sung by 
Dempster ! If you ever, indeed, enjoyed that pleasure, you 
need nothing from another to make you sensible as to what is 
meant by parental filial love. 

Volitions. 

05. Those spiritual emotions and volitions which retain, or 
remember, whatever gratifies the spirit. 1. In its senses. 
2. Its motive powers ; and, 3. In the developments of spiritual 
wisdom, or the love of form and order, which is gratified in 
adopting the most appropriate means of securing the test ends ; 
or, for the progressive development of the human spirit. In 
this degree are evolved the most truthful, faithful, refined, 
and elevating friendships, sympathies, and affections, all of 
which are most symmetrical, as they attract us, even in their 
contemplation ! 

Spiritual Actions. 

06. I. Including the highest spiritually, instinctive, emo- 
tions, volitions, and manifestations of love and wisdom, 
in the form and order which appertain to the identity, conser- 
vation, perpetuity, and development of the human spirit. 

2. Including, 1. All those sensations, volitions, and actions 
which distinguish the forms and order of spiritual manifesta- 
tions, and which receive and appropriate whatever is necessa- 
ry for spiritual development. 2. All emotions, volitions, and 
actions which appertain to the control and government of the 
spirit, and 3. AH those developments and manifestations of 
spiritual love, will and wisdom, which adopt the most appro- 
priate forms and order, for the truthful, spiritual, universal and 
eternal progression and development, or the highest, most en- 
larged and refined philanthropy, toward the whole universe 
of spiritual forms, degrees^ and spheres. 



98 BOOK OF HUMAN NATURE. 



TUe Human IVill. 

97. The human will is the element of power energy ; and 
its motions constitute volitions, which correspond to mind. 
This faculty executes the desires of love, for or against the 
dictates of wisdom, according as the degrees of development 
are balanced between the lowest and highest faculties. Will 
is love acting, and is jointly concerned with love in the exer- 
cise of some of the other faculties, such as hearing, feeling, 
seeing, smelling, &c. The will corresponds to mind, as the 
soul corresponds to love. 

liUistFatiois^*. 

98. As we have seen, Man is constituted of three distinct 
and essential elements, corresponding to heat, motion, and 
light, in the nature and constitution of matter. 

1. Love originates desires, wants, hopes, and wishes. 
Through the nerves of external sense, impressions are first 
made upon this element of the mind ; till it has developed the 
senses, its emotional susceptibilities are not acted on, 
which excite volition ; but after they have been once excited, 
through the external senses, they acquire a new development 
of susceptibility, or the power of centric, or spontaneous ac- 
tivity ; and by the associations which exist between the men- 
tal faculties themselves, they may originate emotions without 
the use of the external senses. 

Volition. 

99. 2. Will is the procedure or the power which deter- 
mines, and acts ; and hence volition is not possible, except 
as it is preceded by love or desire, and must therefore be asso- 
ciated with some faculty constituting the congeries of mental 
functions, in which this element acts, and in which the other 
lesser desires, for the time, acquiesce. 

3. Wisdom points out and shows what will should do to 
gratify love. And hence the thinking, reasoning faculty. 

Reason. 

100. Wisdom is Order and Form, and the perfection of 
love. It corresponds with the spirit, and is developed in dif- 
ferent degrees, in different persons, and in different degrees in 
the same person, at different times, according to the develop- 
ments of love and will, or the states of these organs at the 
time. It must therefore exist in the highest degree, in those 
forms or brain&, where love and will are the nearest to perfec- 



REASON. 99 

tion, and, consequently, where the faculty of wisdom is per- 
fectly developed. A mind thus constituted must be perfectly 
competent to judge of any given proposition within its sphere, 
whether it be true or false ; and all other minds below such a 
perfection of development, will be more or less attracted and 
governed by it whenever they come within its sphere, or in 
any way become associated with it. And thus, we may see 
what those conditions are, which give one mind power over 
another. Mind governs and controls mind, by forms, degrees 
and spheres. The higher attract and control the lower. The 
perfection, therefore, after which each one should aspire, is 
an evenly balanced, fully developed, well governed, intelligent 
mind ; or, in other words, a life in which love is governed, 
according to the dictates of superior wisdom. 

Mental Marmosiy. 

101. 1. Love and Wisdom should be perfectly balanced 
in their degrees of development, and each should be developed 
in the highest possible forms within their sphere. 

2. The different cerebral organs should be in a perfectly 
healthy, normal state. That is, the state in which the rea- 
soning faculties are exercised, and the judgment formed, of any 
given proposition, should be normal, natural, for the faculties 
exercised. It is a normal state, when love, will, and wisdom 
act in PERFECT harmony ; and so it is when wisdom is exer- 
cised with love or will, for as wisdom is the perfection, the 
seed, the essence, developed from love, so it may shed its 
light, when sufficiently developed upon all the degrees that 
have preceded, and from which it has been developed. 

3. Reason, knowledge, and intuition, are normal results, 
which always correspond naturally with the developments of 
wisdom. That is, knowledge of whatever comes within the 
degree or sphere in which this faculty is developed. 

1. External Reason. 

102. Conceptive. Including all those faculties which are 
concerned in the conception of the relations between the cause 
and effects of objects that can be subjected to the examination, 
of the external senses. 2. All such, as judge of the motions 
of mind which manifest sensible results. 3. Such as appertain 
to the character and qualities of forms, order, degrees, and 
spheres. This degree develops sagacity, and the faculty of 
judging of character from the physiognomy. It includes also 
the faculty of comparison, ingenuity, and the powers of ideal 
invention. 



100 BOOK OF HUMAN NATURE. 



2, Kuonrledge. 

103. 1. Perceptive. Including all those mental emotions, vo- 
litions and reflections, which perceive the causes of things, 
forms, motions, and their effects. 2. All those causes which 
operate upon mind, and constitute motions and ability to per- 
ceive motions ; honesty, justice, love of truth, and wisdom ; 
ability to perceive and anticipate the results of mental ac- 
tions, 

3. Rejiective. All that give a knowledge of the hidden 
causes of mental manifestations, penetration, calculation, 
knowledge of the relations of space and numbers. Ability to 
adopt means to ends, method, judgment. 

3. Intuition. 

104. Intuition is the result of perfection in the form, or- 
der, and degree of development of either of the faculties of 
wisdom. When they are developed in that degree, which 
evolves the grey nervous matter, which is the perfection of 
love, and wisdom, the knowledge or action of those organs 
is intuitive. This is a conscious, thinking, knowing power, 
which knows and perfectly comprehends, without experience, 
whatever comes within the sphere of its developments. 

Pliysiolog^y of Intuition* 

105. That intellectual power is, in all cases, conditioned up- 
on the amount of the cortical, or grey nervous matter, I infer 
from the following facts. 

1. This grey matter is never found in the brains of animals. 

2. When found in animals or men, at all, it is always in 
connection with those organs which originate power. Thus, 
we find it only in the brains, spinal chord, ganglia, and slight 
traces of it in the torpedo, gymnotus, &c. In animals, the 
highest development of the love principle constitutes instinct ; 
but in men, its highest developments constitute wisdom, reason 
and intuition. 

3. It is found in very slight traces in the brains of the foetus 
and infant. 

4. Scarcely, and often not at all, in the brains of idiots. 

5. The developments of intellectuality, in youth, corres- 
pond with the. appearances of this grey matter. Hence, we 
have prodigies, like Zera Colburn, Ole Bull, Safford, and oth- 
ers. These were prodigies in childhood, long before their ce- 
rebral organs had acquired that size common to maturity or 
manhood. 



HARMONY. 101 

6. Post-mortem examinations have proved that this matter 
exists in the greatest quantities in those brains where there 
have been the greatest manifestations of intellectual power, 

7. The breadth of the phrenological organs is an indication, 
(other things being equal) of quality. Now the broader the^ 
surface of the convolutions, the greater the quantity of the 
grey matter, in one direction ; which determines the extend- 
ing degree of development, or the qualities or character of the 
mind, as to goodness and truth. 

8. The height of the convolutions from the centre of the 
sphere, determines, (other things being equal,) the degree of 
intellectual power. 

9. In the brains of very old persons, and in some cases of 
chronic insanity, and habitual drunkenness, this grey matter 
is atrophied.* 

Intellectual Power. 

106. 10. This assumption with regard to the form and order 
of intellectuality, agrees with what we know to be peculiar to 
the temperaments of different persons. That is, persons of an 
apathetic temperament (143) are sometimes found, who mani- 
fest extraordinary power in one faculty only, and, in such 
cases, that faculty is developed most in the ascending form. 
But, when most, or all of the faculties are thus developed, or 
when the vital, motive and cerebral temperaments are com- 
bined in the greatest degrees of perfection, it makes such tem- 
peraments as have been found in the persons of Homer, Aris- 
totle, Demosthenes, Galen, Bacon, Melancthon, Swedenborg, 
Newton, Wesley, Washington, Gall and Franklin, in each of 
whom was manifested an original, intelligent and powerful 
mind. 

Universal Harmony, 

107. If the question be now asked, what must be, in the 
nature of things, the greatest good of each human being or of 
the Race, the answer is at hand : — Harmony. 

The Infinite himself, is Eternal Harmony. Infinite Love, 
Will, and Wisdom, must be Eternal Form and Order, devel- 
oped in unending Harmony. It is evident, however, that the 
Infinite is not so considered by man in his rudimentary state. 
Hence, mankind more formerly than now, were accustomed to 
speak of God as more or less imperfect, either in his nature, 
plans or works. For to suppose Him Infinite in Goodness, 
Power, and Intelligence, would preclude the possibility of ab- 
solute evil. For how can there be two absolute antagonisms % 

* London Loncet, Aug. 1845. 



102 BOOK OF HUMAN NATURE. 

In the nature and constitution of things, two absolute contra- 
rieties cannot be ; in other words, there cannot be two infinite 
contradictions. And with a mind not sufficiently developed to 
see this, it would scarcely be advisable to argue. 

If, then, the Divine be Infinite Harmony in Himself, Infi- 
nite Harmony in His Designs, Ends and means, we can see 
what must be the greatest good of the Human Race — Harmo- 
nious Progression. 

x'^.ll other forms besides the Divine, must begin to be. The 
beginning is infancy. Infancy is not an evil in itself consid- 
ered, but when compared with manhood, it may be called an 
evil, because it is below tha^ harmonious development which 
makes manhood. The distance from infancy to manhood gives 
an idea of what is meant by progression. And progression is 
the real object of all man's aspirations. 

Harmony in the vital system is health — in the motive 
system, is power — in the cerebral system, it is sanity ; and 
harmony in all the elements combined, makes an evenly bal- 
anced, well governed, healthy, intelligent Man. 

That which Harmony is to the individual, it must be, of 
course, to the family. Parents who are diseased cannot pro- 
create healthy children. Too great a difference in the age, 
health or disposition, either prevents issue or produces corres- 
ponding discords. The intellectual, no less than the physical 
qualities of parents, are transmitted more or less, always. 

Qualities are perceived from contrasts. So when we speak 
of evil, disease, discord, misery, hell, we can not only under- 
stand what is meant by these terms, but we can see how ex- 
actly they correspond with the stages signified, and how aptly 
they designate the negatives of what is meant by goodness, 
health, harmony, heaven. 

Health. 

108. Health is that state of the spiritual and physical sys- 
tems in which the motions of each of the elements are harmo- 
nious and regular. In such cases, each part of the body is 
evenly developed, and the ingestive, retentive and egestive 
motions are each performed without interruption. It is then 
that the due amount of the nutritive fluid is elaborated, and 
communicated to the different parts at the proper time ; the 
heart dilates and contracts regularly ; the voluntary and other 
muscles obey without obstruction the several wants of the 
Various organisms which call them into action. The various 
secretions are made at the proper period, the vital forces pre- 
dominate in their tendencies to preserve all parts of the sys- 
tem against the destructive power of oxygen, which tends to 
break them down ; and thus the balance of power is duly 



HARMONY. 103 

maintained between the breathing-, circulating, assimilating, 
absorbing and excreting functions. This we call a state of 
perfect health. 

Pleasure ; IIappis&e§s. 

109. Happiness is but another term for development, or the 
perfection of the human mind in all its form, motions and 
developments. Every mind, and every one of its organs are 
happy, jiist as far as they are developed in harmony. The 
great law of design, (2) makes all those sensations, emotions 
and volitions painful that are excited by agencies which pre- 
vent the harmonious development of the organism upon which 
they act, or which the love principle believes to be so, and the 
same law of design makes all those agencies agreeable, which 
tend to develop, to draw out the motions of the organism, or 
which have such a tendency in the hopes or wishes of the 
mind. 

All the vital, mental and spiritual wants grow out of love ; 
and the exercise of any one faculty affords satisfaction ; but 
the greatest good, the greatest happiness is enjoyed when love 
and wisdom, are gratified or exercised in perfect harmony, in a 
state of perfect development. The highest organ is wisdom, 
and hence it is that man is holy and happy when the whole of 
his organs are gratified or exercised in harmony with this devel- 
opment, whatever its degree may be ; and the most so, when 
wisdom is perfectly developed, and all the other functions are 
governed accordingly. 

A healthy mind in a healthy body, or, in other words, a har- 
moniously developed mind gives contentment always for the 
past ; gratitude for the present, and hope for the future I 

" Auspicious Hope ! In thy sweet garden grow 

Wreaths for each toil, a bah^i for every woe ! 

Won by their charms, in nature's languid hour 

The way-worn spirit seeks thy summer bower. 

Here, as the wild bee murmurs on the wing, 

What peaceful dreams thy handmaid Fairies bring! 

What viewless forms the J^^olian organs play, 

And sweep the furrowed lines of anxious thought away." 

Perhaps no organ in the human constitution contributes so 
much to the sum total of man's happiness, if, indeed there be 
one which contributes so much to the health of the external 
body, as that of hope. 

And, as to the immortal mind, what is religion or happiness, 
without contentment, gratitude, and hope ? What is life, even 
where this trinity is incomplete ? Is a dissatisfied mind a happy 
one 1 And what beauties, what mental perfections could supply 
the want of gratitude 1 Is it not a most lovely trait of character, 
whether in brute or human? And yet, how often we may 



104 BOOK OF HUMAN NATURE. 

find persons who do not seem even to ask themselves whether 
there be such a state of mind as is indicated by the term ingra- 
titude ! They receive, but do not give. They monopolize all 
into their own individuality, as the decayed plant yields no rich 
perfume as the return for the toil bestowed upon it. Con- 
stantly receiving, why should we not give 1 " It is more 
blessed to give than to receive." 

Assured by a knowledge of nature's laws that the future 
must be, on the whole, better even than the past, hope carries 
us forward, even where philosophy may not penetrate ; and 
still reaching on into the future, it inspires strength with which 
to endure burdens that would otherwise prove utterly intoler- 
able. Hence, to one and to all there is " a better day coming." 
We may not, indeed, all give the same definitions of the future 
good ; but we do all, if in harmony, nevertheless, look forward 
to its development with ardent longings which no language can 
describe. 

Problem of Cvil. 

110. As God is infinite goodness, so there cannot be an in- 
finite evil. When, therefore, we speak of " evil," the term 
must be understood in this comparative sense, as indicating 
less goodness, less harmony. It is said the very " heavens 
are not clean," (are evil,) in the sight of the Infinite, and that 
" He charged his angels with folly," ignorance or evil. 

Strictly speaking, nothing can be called evil, to one who is 
not himself, in some sense, evil,, ignorant, imperfect, or dis- 
cordant. Suppose one falsifies to you, in announcing himself 
as Dr. Franklin or St. Paul. This falsehood could do you no 
injury, provided you were sufficiently developed into the light 
of wisdom, for then you would know better, and being familiar 
with the cause, you could not be deceived. The " raw-head- 
and-bloody-bones" stories of the nursery, injure no one but the 
ignorant children to whom they are told. 

The terms evil, falsehood, discord, imperfection, ignorance, 
misery, may be used synonymously, and all have respect to 
time, the want of progression, development, harmony. It is a 
matter of necessity that we should be children, in order to be 
men ; and childhood is evil when compared to the joys of man- 
hood. A certain story would be evil to a child, that would not 
injure a man. Hence, when mortals are low, or infantile in 
their knowledge of the spritual, they are much more liable to 
be deceived or " led into evil." 

To every positive there must be a negative; and this may 
be true without involving the notion of absolute antagonisms in 
the sense taught in the old theology. Darkness may be said 
to be the negation of light. And although the sun does really 



PKOBLEM OF EVIL. 105 

always shine, and "shines for all," yet the laws of the solar 
system put certain portions of the planets in such positions to 
the great central luminary, that they are sometimes in darkness. 

It is an evil in mortals, that they should be liable to mis- 
takes. That is, when mortals are so ignorant as to be liable to 
be deceived, their condition is one which may be called evil, 
when compared with those who are so high above it that they 
could not be thus deceived. And yet that position is a positive 
good, when compared with no existence at all, or an existence 
which is far below it. 

All things, when considered as one connected whole, are a 
positive good, and have an important use, because they help on 
the progression of the race. So we say of the animal king- 
dom, it is a positive good, and has an important use as it 
administers to the wants of the kingdom of human beings, who 
are above it. And yet that same animal kingdom has many 
animals in it which, in themselves considered, are evil, and 
who do evil to man. Indeed, there are animals whose exist- 
ence, when considered by itself, is nothing but evil. And so 
of the vegetable kingdom. This kingdom is good, when con- 
sidered as a whole ; and has an important use, because, 
withput it, animals could not generally exist. And yet how 
many vegetables are poisonous, and therefore evil, in their 
effects on animal life.* 

The mind is often misled in respect to " the origin of evil,'' 
as it is called, by speaking of " evil," as if it were an entity, a 
positive principle, in the same sense that goodness is positive 
and absolute. Whereas, although evil be the want of pro- 
gression, the want of development, yet, it is just as necessary, 
as that the being should exist, to progress. The following 
remarks are from one who has written much upon this and 
kindred subjects, and are so appropriately uttered, that I give 
them a place here : — 

I. That there are three sources of evil. First, progenitive 

* Swedenborg, alluding to these evils of the vegetable and animal 
kingdoms, goes so far as to say that — 

"roisonous serpents, scorpions, crocodiles, dragons, tigers, wolves, 
foxes, swine, owls, rats, mice, locusts, frogs, bats, spiders, flies, 
drones, moths, lice, nutes, and all malignant, virulent, and poisonous 
herbs, did not derive their origin from the Lord, neither were they 
created from the beginning, neither did they originate from nature, 
by her sun, but they are from Jiell. — I). L. W. 23, 28. 

He extends the enumeration of things in the mineral, vegetable, 
and animal kingdoms, which were not originated by the Great First 
Cause, but which arc " from the devil or hell ;" and these "are not from 
the Lord" — consequently they are evil, and he speaks as if he sup- 
posed they were evil in an absolute sense ; but this cannot be ; they 
can be said to be evil only in a comparative sense. 



106 BOOK OF HUMAN NATURE. 

or hereditary misdirection ; secondly, educational or sympathetio 
misdirection ; thirdly, circumstantial or social misdirection. 

2. That " the disunity prevalent in the earth is rather the 
result" of those conditions and circumstances which make 
affections evils, than " of evil affections," as Swedenborg 
teaches. 

3. That all things and spirits are receptacles of the grand 
element of the Love of God, which, diffused through nature, as 
the Soul is through the body, unfolds itself into Wisdom. 

4. That man is an incarnated divinity, and therefore that he 
is not intrinsically evil himself, and cannot love anything 
" intrinsically evil," though he may be bent or misdirected 
while in the twig-state, and grow up crooked, and despised by 
sensuous observers, through this sphere of his existence or 
development. 

5. That as God lives in all things and everywhere, there are 
no local or especial Incarnations of this essence. This is the 
true •' ground of our grand doctrine of the Incarnation," the 
highest demonstrations of which are visible in the life and 
teachings of Christ, and in the profound revealments of SwediJn- 
borg. 

6. That every human being has an important mission to ful- 
fil, or three uses to subserve. The individual is designed to 
re-produce its type, to properly direct the heavenly germ in it 
deposited, and to live here in reference to the principles of na- 
ture and another life. 

7. That a knowledge of Nature and her laws is indispensa- 
ble to a just performance of the three uses just specified, con- 
stituting man's mission ; and that, to cure the evil and " disu- 
nity prevalent" in society, we must ascertain our inner and 
outer relations to each other, as members of one body, and our 
relations to the Material and Spiritual Worlds. In this way, 
" man's moral nature may be elevated from its sensual plane," 
and a " conjunction" be established between the human and 
divine. The teachings of all good spirits, (especially the great 
reformers, Christ and Swedenborg) tend to a full discovery 
and just application of those truths which will constitute " a 
spiritual sphere of attraction," and which will attract and ele- 
vate the race to a closer relation among its parts, with the 
principles of Divine order and harmony, and the chastening 
influences of higher spheres. 

Such is the origin of evil, as manifested in the actions of the . 
individual ; and its cure can only be accomplished by remov- 
ing the three causes of human misdirection. 

When I examine Swedenborg's philosophical disclosures, I 
find nothing in them inconsistent with the above illustration of 
the origin of evil, but when he takes the Bible for his master, 



MANHOOD. 107 

be seems to make his stupendous Science, Philosophy, and 
Theology of Nature and the Universe, bow submissively to 
its imperative authority. Do not the receivers of Sweden- 
borg, in like manner, take him for their master 1 When you 
say *' no revelation from higher spheres can in the least de- 
gree" disturb the convictions of Swedenborgians, I fear it is 
rather Sv^^edenborg and his truths, than the truths of Nature 
and Heaven, they are determined to advocate and defend— 
and such seem to defend him, too, with instruments by him 
prepared, rather than with Reason freed from prejudice and 
educational inclination. 

I am not defending the Book I gave to the world in my su- 
perior condition, (let it do its work,) but I am desirous of 
freeing the general mind of all isms, and their errors concern- 
ing the origin of Sin, the Incarnation, and the restitution of 
man to a state of purity and blessedness. I am not only anx- 
ious to be free from all isms, but to have a standard composed 
only of reason and truth — based on Man, Nature, and the Uni- 
verse — a basis immovable, but an edifice of truth and goodness 
capable of inconceivable additions — a germ of truth, capable 
of endless expansion — a Master inspiring all earths and spheres 
with heat and light, or Love and Wisdom, and making the 
weakest beings recipients and examples of his love and grace. 
I know I shall, like all others, progress eternally ; therefore I 
do not promise to believe to-morrow exactly what I believe 
to-day, for I may know more. 

The internal man rests on the foundation of intuition ; the 
wise man upon reflection, the external man upon perception, 
and the superficial man upon testimony. Beware of testimo- 
ny — of believing what others say, but who will ascend to 
higher spheres, there to learn and enjoy more of the perpetual 
blessings flowing from the inexhaustible depths of intuition 
and truth.* 

Maniliood. 

111. Thus we have seen that the maturity, or the harmonious 
development of the Human Organism, constitutes Manhood, 
or one whose Individualism is sovereign. Nature's laws, by 
which he has been developed, are, indeed, Fate to him, but 
they have made him a Man, male and female, who has thus 
become conscious of Selfhood. And, one of the highest 
questions which first engages his attention for solution, is in 
respect to his Selfhood, his Self-reliance. To this query a 
brief answer may here be given. 

1. Your sense of dependence should lead you, first, to the 

* A. J. Davis. 



108 BOOK OF HUMAN NATUKE. 

highest source of all good, all justice, and all truth. That 
source, as we have seen, (8, 11) is the Infinite Man, who is 
the Father of us all. He has certainly revealed himself in 
various degrees, in all kingdoms, all worlds, in all forms of 
life, and in the human form, as God-Man. In that form he is 
" First and Last," "All and in All." If you are a finite 
man. He is an Infinite Man ; and in that form in which he has 
made himself most known to the human race, you may see 
him, know him, love him, approach him, and from him re- 
ceive all that you need. 

" The great importance of having a just idea of God, ap- 
pears from this consideration, that the idea of God constitutes 
the inmost thought of all those who have any religion ; for all 
things of religion and divine worship have respect to God. 
And as God is universally and particularly in all things of 
religion and of worship, therefore, unless there be a just idea 
of God, no communication is possible with the heavens. 
Hence it is, in the spiritual world, every nation has its place, 
according to its idea of God, as a Man ; for in this, and in 
no other, is the idea of the Lord. That the state of every 
man's life, after death, is according to the idea of God which 
he has confirmed in himself, appears manifestly from the re- 
verse of the proposition, namely, that the negation of God 
constitutes hell."^ 

2. Be yourself at heart, good and truthful. Love good, for 
goodness' sake ; love justice, for the sake of justice ; and love 
truth, for its own sake. In proportion as you love goodness 
and truth, you become receptive of these qualities, and must 
necessarily repel what is false and evil. 

3. In searching for information on any subject, take nothing 
for sufficient authority but Superior Wisdom, Goodness, 
Justice. Use your own judgment in all things. Obtain all 
the information you can, from all available sources, and then 
decide for yourself; and never act merely upon advice given 
you, except when your own judgment approves, and you are 
willing, in case you should fail or be involved in trouble, to 
bear the responsibility of it yourself. 

An honest state of mind will assist you always, not only in 
detecting what would be false and evil to you, but also to repel 
whatever might otherwise tend to lead you astray. As you 
are individualized, you must suffer for yourself, rejoice in your- 
self. If you err, it is yourself that is injured. You must 
" work out your own salvation." Think, judge for yourself. 
Pray, love, and believe for yourself. 



Su-cden^org'a Z>ivinc Love and Wisdom^ 13. 



DEATH. 109 



I>eatli. 



112. That transition termed death, is the natural result of 
those chemical forces which are in constant operation, and by 
which matter is transformed from one sphere to another. As 
we have seen, when it reaches those degrees which develop 
sensation and consciousness, or the personal identity of the 
human soul, (72) then the form is individualized, and never 
recedes though the materials in which it has been developed 
are constantly dying, or changing by the laws of chemical 
action from one state to another. 

Strictly speaking, death commences just as soon as we com- 
mence our existence, because life, or the human soul, is con- 
stantly changing the clothing with which it invests itself in the 
form of the living body. There is no sense, therefore, in 
which death can be dreaded, in itself considered, but, on tlie 
contrary, it should be viewed as it really is, the change in our 
form of existence by which the spirit relieves itself of the 
grosser particles of matter, now no longer needed, and ascends 
to another sphere, according" to the laws of progression by 
which its existence was at first commenced. (19) Death, 
therefore, is the separation of the mental or spiritual from the 
outer or physical organism ; (37. 67.) and is as necessary 
for the more perfect development of manhood, as the lesser 
and preceding changes were, by which the organism was 
brought out of a foetal state, or the imperfections of infancy. 
The seed of the plant is never fully perfected until its outer 
form is decayed. And so with the human. We scarcely 
enter upon the plane of our real, our true manhood, until we 
have outgrown these coarse external forms which are peculiar 
to our rudimentary state. Hence it is to be inferred : — 

1. That there is nothing in that transition, per se, we call 
death, which should make it an event, either to be unduly 
desired or much dreaded. Fear arises always from ignor- 
ance — the want of knowledge. When, therefore, the mmd is 
sufficiently developed to be able to comprehend its origin, 
laws and destiny, it will be seen, that there is, there can be, 
nothing in that change, provided it come on in the regular 
course of nature's laws, to be either really feared or dreaded. 
We should fear sleep as much as death, if we really knew as 
little about it. 

Having seen what is meant by irregularity, evil, (110) and 
discord, it is plain why death should not be unduly desired, 
and, especially, why nothing should be done to hasten it. It 
is the most agreeable with nature's design, that the rose should 
be fully blown — that the fruit should be fully ripe. Her re- 



liO BOOK OF HUMAN NATURE. 

gular, harmonious work should not be intercepted as it is? 
when the flower is plucked before the time, or when life is cut 
short before its outer form is fully matured. It is worthy of 
remark, that animals never voluntarily shorten their own lives. 
Their instincts for conserving their own existence are never 
perverted. But, man's organism being more complicated, is 
more liable to discord, or friction in its machinery. Hence 
originate his errors, his false views of himself, and his des- 
tiny. And these erroneous views that he takes of himself, 
may lead him into such habits of living, and to such volitions 
as necessarily result in hastening his own death. But, it is 
manifest from the analogy of reason, and from the most accu- 
rate views we can take of the past, the present and the future, 
that the best course for one, and for all, is, never to interfere 
with the harmonious operation of nature's laws. Touch not 
the inmost of life. You may, indeed, anticipate with pleasure 
the regular, harmonious unfoldings of your future existence, 
which will divest you of the outer form ; but, to attempt to 
hasten that event is discord, bitter and repulsive in the end. 
As life is the greatest good of which man can be conscious ; 
as it is the germ of all the parental, filial, fraternal, conjugal, 
and Divine love, which come within man's sphere of enjoy- 
ment, and is, therefore, the highest gift of God, so, for man 
to sin against that life, and voluntarily intercept its regular 
development, is the most hideous crime, which it is possible 
for him to commit. And this, added to the fact, that man 
cannot know beforehand, what hindrances homicide or suicide 
may place in the way of his progression, makes this crime 
more to be feared — more ugly and hateful^ as it so evidently 
leads into regions of darkness, doubt, uncertainty, and despair. 
Hence we infer, that the ignorance, the discord, in the mind 
of one which would allow him to contemplate a crime against 
nature so hateful and hideous, would, of course, prevent him 
from taking accurate views of the terrible consequences which 
might follow. 

2. That when death is anticipated, in the harmonious and 
regular operation of nature's laws, it may, indeed, be con- 
templated with exceeding joy ; precisely the same as we 
contemplate all of those regular changes and transition states, 
which evince the great fact of eternal progression. As death 
has respect, principally to the outer form, and the relation, 
existing with the external world, so, it dissolves no ties, severs 
no affinities which are purely spiritual. Hence it must be, 
that after death, our loves are the same as before ; our tiioughts, 
our designs, the same. In a word, we are ourselves, the 
Individualism is not annihilated, the man is the same, having 
only passed out of a coarse body, and arisen in the same form, 



DEATH. Ill 

a spirit, and thus, the real man continues his life, his love, his 
existence, by those alternations in the outer form of Nature, 
which are common from the lowest even to the highest, as we 
have seen. 

3. That when the outer form is once dispensed with, by the 
process of death, the real spiritual man has no further use for 
it ; and hence its materials go back to their original condition. 
The notion that nature's coarser forms, as such, either in the 
vegetable, animal, or mental kingdoms, will ever be re- 
suscitated, is an error, peculiar to infancy. In all of nature's 
processes, as we have seen (19, 32.) when the higher, or 
inmost form, throws off the lower or outermost, it is never re- 
called, or taken up again by the same form. Nor is it to be 
conceived, that the Human Spirit, after death, will ever have 
any more use for the old carcase out of which it has been 
developed, than the corn has need of the resurrection of the 
old stalk from which it has been developed. As death is the 
transition of the real man, into a spiritual world, we there find 
ourselves spiritual organisms, spiritual men and women. In 
the nature of things as we have seen (12, 13,) it is impossible 
for minds in the lower sphere, fully to comprehend all which 
appertains to existence in the spheres above. The laws of 
each kingdom in nature, comprehend those below. It follows, 
that only just in proportion as the human spirit is developed, 
will it be capable of anticipating and appreciating its future 
existence. 

Iininortality. 

113. Considerations from which it is reasonable to infer the 
future, everlasting, progressive existence of the human spirit, 
after the death of the body. As — 

1 . Our consciousness of personal identity. The matter com- 
posing the body, is changed ; indeed it is in a constant state of 
change, living and dying, from the first moment of our exist- 
ence. But consciousness of personal identity, when the mind 
is in a normal, healthy state, remains always the same. (46.) 

2. There must be something beyond the mere qualities of 
the nerves through which we are said to see, hear and feel. 
Why do we not always hear, when the sound breaks upon the 
earl (67.) We hear only when the mind hears, we see only 
when the mind sees. How often things are before our eyes, 
and reflect their light directly upon the optic nerves, but we 
do not see, for the reason that the mind is not there. The 
nerves are there, the particles are all there just the same, but 
the mind which sees, is not there. 

3. The laws of eternal progression. (24.) It is impossible 
to reconcile the idea of annihilation with the laws of matter. 



112 BOOK OF HUMAN NATURE. 

or the constitution of things. The higher the form, the purei 
the Essence, and from this law we have developed the spirit, 
the Essence — of that form which constitutes the animal body, 
substance, or matter, itself is never annihilated, it cannot be. Its 
forms change, are constantly changing ; and the lower the 
form the more liable to dissolution. But, as the form is per- 
fected into the spiritual, it thus becomes indissoluble from the 
very nature or method of its own constitution. (304-) 



MEMORY. 113 



msTmcT. 

PHYSIOLOGICAL, VITAL, MENTAL 



Memory. 

113. Memory is an inherent, instinctive, ingestive, reten- 
tive and reflective function. It appertains to each, primary 
element of the animal organism, and hence we find it in ani- 
mals as well as men. We are told that the dog of Ulysses 
remembered him after a ten years' absence, when Penelope 
had even forgotten his form and features. A dog taken three 
hundred miles from Pondicherry found his way back through 
a roadless country ; and an Alpine mastiff, brought from Lans- 
lebourg, on the borders of Switzerland, to Calais, actually re- 
turned from the sea-coast. 

Things done by animals are frequently attributed to Instinct, 
which should rather be accounted for by Memory and the laws 
of association. Hence the operations of this faculty seem to 
be so mysterious, and bear so important a part in the economy 
of Human Nature, that a distinct consideration of its functions 
seems necessary here. 

Three ]>eg:ree§ of Memory. 

114. 1. Instinctive Memory includes all those impulses, 
motions and manifestations which appertain to the animal 
economy, and by which the various functions of the organism 
are carried on and developed. 

2. Internal Memory includes all those emotions, volitions, 
and actions, which have been deposited in the primary mate- 
rials of the mind, and which have contributed to its constitu- 
tion and development. These may, or may not, be a matter 
of consciousness, according to the state of the mind when the 
impressions were made. 

We call this degree Instinctive, to distinguish it from that 
which, went before, and that degree which follows, or is 
above it. 



114 BOOK OP HUMAN NATURE. 

3. Reflective, or External Memory, which includes all tliose 
emotions, volitions, and mental manifestations, received or 
manifested throu^ the external senses. 

Memory therefore is a faculty which appertains not only to 
the threefold elements of the human mind, but also to each one 
of the mental organs, as it must indeed in some sense to one 
and all of the parts of the human organism. How else does 
each one perform its appropriate function at the proper time? 
With what punctuality, with what nice precision, do we find 
them each m the timely performance of their necessary work ! 
And when one of them forgets its duty, or by accident or 
some unavoidable impediment, is prevented in its wonted 
function, see what pain, what mischief is the penalty. Nay, 
the alternations which constitute death itself, may be said to 
be the resultant labors of this omnipresent faculty which at- 
taches always and everywhere to every motion, and every 
particle of substance in the universe of God. 

Conditions of Memory. 

115. Memory depends upon, and is developed by the nutri- 
tive forces, and the laws of association. (43, 44,67.) Hence 

1. We remember impressions the best, which were made 
upon the mind in youth, when the nutritive fluid was active ; 
and accordingly memory becomes feeble in old age, and the 
decline of life. (49.) 

We remember those impressions best, that were made upon 
organs that were very much excited by the nutritive forces at 
the time they were made. (49.) 

This account of memory shows how^ it is that we remember 
and yet cannot remember, at one and the same time. We 
may, for instance, remember a man, but not his name ; or we 
may remember that we know a certain tune, but not be able to 
remember the first note. The reason is. Love and Wisdom 
are each concerned ; and that element that was the most ac- 
tive at the time the impression was made, remembers the part 
of it which was appropriate to its own function. Individuality 
remembers the man, but Language remembers his name. 

Al>nornial Memory, 

116. 4. Thus, we see how it may be, that somnambulists 
and the insane sometimes do not remember, in one state, 
what they said or did in another. If an impression is made 
upon Love, but not strong enough to bring Will, or Wisdom, 
into action, of course neither Will nor Wisdom can assist in 
calling up the recollection of the impression. 

It suggesUL also, the manner in which we are to account 



MEMORY. 115 

for many things which persons of a peculiar temperament do, 
from memory^ (it may be,) but of which they have no con- 
sciousness at the time they are done. Thus 1 have known a 
person to repeat a piece of poetry in a state of Trance, which 
she declared to be original, believing and asserting honestly, 
that she had no memory of ever having heard it read be- 
fore. But from further inquiry I found, that the ecstatic had 
read that same poetry in a newspaper some three months 
before. 

And here, in this knowledge of the mysterious machinery 
of Memory, we may find also a solution of many things said 
and done by that class of persons denominated " spiritual in- 
struments," or "mediums." They write books and utter 
words, of which they have no conscious memory, and for 
this reason they imagine that the faculties of their own mind 
bore little or no part in what is done. Hence it is attributed 
to " spirits" out of the human body, in many if not all cases, 
without sufficient cause. 

As long as wc know that almost any amount of facts may 
be laid up in the internal memory, and locked up there so 
closely that the Will power cannot bring them forth into the 
external, we need not be at a loss to account for phenomena 
that often occur, but which are attributed to remote and extra- 
ordinary causes. A servant girl hears her master repeating 
his Greek and Hebrew. It is not noticed at the time. A se- 
ries of years elapse, when a fall injures her brains, and in a 
fit of delirium she continues the repetition of the Greek and 
Hebrew she had unconsciously heard her master utter years 
before. The truth is, we lay up many things, unconsciously 
to ourselves, in our inmost memory, and which a dream, or a 
fit of sickness, or some other cause, will call out from their 
hidden recesses, when they seem as new to us as if we had 
never received any thing of the kind. To perceive how it is 
that the memory often receives occurrences into its keeping, 
without any consciousness at the time, consider how often 
persons remember words they heard spoken, but which they 
'' did not notice at the time." And how common it is for per- 
sons to sit in a room where they hear the tick of a clock du- 
ring the day, and hear it strike the hours, even, but have no 
consciousness of the facts till afterwards, when some other 
facts call them out of their internal chambers. And thus it is 
that persons of a peculiar temperament sometimes read books, 
but retain no consciousness of the facts in the external mem- 
ory, till after the lapse of years some correlative event, or 
some undefinable excitement of one of the cerebral organs, 
brings out the knowledge of what was read, into conscious- 
ness, and we cannot tell where it came from. In- such 



116 BOOK OF. HUMAN NATURE. 

it is liable to be attributed to any cause or source but the right 
one. 

And precisely in the same manner do we find books may be, 
and doubtless have been written, and the authorship afterwards 
ascribed to spirits. Persons of a peculiar temperament are 
known to be liable to those nervous changes, called Trance, 
and in one state they cannot remember what was said or done 
in the other. From immemorial time persons of this class 
have been known to write, and even to preach sermons in one 
state, but of which they had no conscious memory in the other 
state. And within a few years past, large numbers of books 
have been written, containing details of matters and things 
that the authors, in their normal state disclaim all knowledge 
of. And so, because they cannot call up the facts in the 
external memory, they imagine that they, in their own proper 
persons could not have originated those compositions. And 
hence, they suppose it must have been done by departed 
spirits. But this does not follow. Spirits ma)^, indeed, for 
aught we know, influence mortals to do, or say many things, 
or any thing, even. And a knowledge of psychology, or the 
laws of memory, will show us how to account for all that 
mortals do without the necessity of attributing the whole to 
spirits, as some have done. And then again, is it not mani- 
fest, that if spirits have the power to control " mediums" to 
the extent assumed by those who write books in this manner, 
it must be an easy "thing for the same spirits to cause the 
medium to act in a manner, of which the medium himself is 
conscious at the time, but-'which he does not remember when 
relieved from the " spell V Of course the influence, the idea, 
or combination of circumstances and ideas which have united 
to change the condition of the medium's nervous system, to 
such an extraordinary degree, as to cause the composition of 
" lectures," " sermons," " poetry," &c., may hallucinate the 
mind and memory so as to prevent all recollection as to the 
real manner in which it was done. 

Can Memory l>e Improved ? 

117. If the faculty of memory attaches to, or is a func- 
tion or a part of a function of each mental organ, then it may 
be perceived how, and to what extent it may be improved. It 
must be done by the laws of association, always. (65, 67, 69.) 
That is, as the memory of a feeble organ must necessarily be- 
weak, we must associate the smaller faculty with one that is 
larger, and if we can establish a congenial association between 
the smaller faculty and another that is the strongest, in the 
whole organism, then we thus cause the larger organs to do 
the work of those that are small and weak. 



THE CURATIVE PRINCIPLE. 117 

Before the brains are fully matured, the smaller organs, or 
memory, may be some increased by their exercise ; though I 
think, not to so great an extent as has been imagined. Where 
the organs of language, for instance, are large, it is com- 
paratively easy to remember words, and so of number, and 
music. Knowledge is easily acquired by a large organ, 
because the receptacle is capacious. And hence, we always 
find it so very difficult for persons to learn in all those depart- 
ments of science, in respect to which the memory is deficient, 
and easy in all otliers, in respect to which the mental organs 
and the memory are large and strong. 

BI^° Tlie Curative Principle. ..^ 

118. The primary motions of the Menial Elements^ Love, 
Life ; and Wisdom, Form and Order, constitute instinct and 
the Nutritive Fluid ; and Perfect Nutrition is the Cura- 
tive Principle in all cases. Its interruption is Disease and 
Death. 

Let this be borne in mind while reading that which follows. 

Tital Plieiionieiia. 

119. We have seen, that what has been called the Nervous 
Force, is the Nutritive Fluid. And from which it follows, that 
all impressions, all emotions, volitions and actions, in the 
nervous system, are more or less chemical, and connected with 
this fluid ; and hence it is, that the nervous energy is health, 
or disease ; is modified, increased, or diminished in the 
system, or its various parts, by air, food, cold, heat, light, 
darkness, sound, color, odor, bodily and mental exercise, 
associations, and in a word, by every thing in nature, real or 
imaginary, which may be brought in contact with the body, or 
occupy the mind, so that there is, there can be, no mental or 
physical changes in the human mind or body, without corres- 
ponding chemical changes, in the fluids and matter, composing 
the parts of the nervous system. 

Fiiiictioiial PoAver. 

120. The functions of the living body, or the tendency of 
certain organs to specific offices, are determined by the Forms 
in which the particles composing the parts are elaborated and 
arranged. When the Relation, or the relative position of 
the nervous molecules and tissues are altered, chemical change 
is the result ; and that change is the excitement, suspension, or 
modification, of the functional power, and the impression, or 
impulse, is transmitted by the motions^ or pressure, of the 
nervous molecules upon one another. 



118 BOOK OF HUMAK NATUEE. 

I have shown,, from what I suppose to be the highest 
authorities on the subject of human physiology, which can be 
quoted, that every motion in the human body, is in some sense 
a chemical change ; and that this opinion is correct, I think, 
cannot be doubted, if we consider the effects of chemical 
agents, like the sulphuric ether, upon both the body and the mind. 
(64.) Chemical substances produce Chemical changes. (72.) 

\^laat is It ? 

121. Thus we perceive how it is that impressions are con- 
veyed by the nervous system from one part of the organism to 
another ; it is done by the pressure of the nervous molecules, 
always. 

Pr. John Harrison,* has not only shown, that the change 
undergone in the nervous system, in all cases of nervous ac- 
tion, is purely chemical^ and also that the impressions are 
transmitted by molecular motion, but he has shown that tiie 
prevalent notions of identity between- electricity, galvanism, 
magnetism, and the nervous action, are utterly unfounded. It 
is common, as Prof. H. remarks, for persons to attribute phe- 
nomena, which they cannot account for in any other way, to 
magnetism or electricity ; and hence it is that so many silly 
notions have prevailed on this subject ; some under the name 
of " animal magnetism," and others under the terms of " the 
nervo-vital fluid," but all of them, alike puerile, and unsupport- 
ed. That " innervation " is not by an electrical fluid, elim- 
inated out of the body, in the sense supposed by believers in 
what has been called " animal magnetism," I infer from the 
following considerations ; 

1. The nerves are had conductors of electricity. They are 
filled with an oily substance, and are not so good conductors as 
the muscles, or fluids.f 

2. Galvanism, or electricity, like all other stimulants when 
applied continually, so far from producing the phenomena of 
life, produce death. If you take two muscles from an animal 
recently killed, with their respective nerves attached, and gal- 
vanize one of them with a feeble power, while you lay the 
other aside, you will find that the one galvanized loses its con- 
tractility long before the other, nor can it be restored again 
after being once destroyed ! And the same results may follow 
when galvanism is applied to the living tissue. W. Philip di- . 
vided the pneumogastie nerves of two dogs ; the animals were 
as near alike as possible. To one he applied galvanism, and it 



* Essay towards a correct theory of the Nervous System, 
t Dr. Stark, London Athenoeum, March 4, 1843. 



MUSCULAR MOTION. 119 

died in two hours and a quarter, while the other, which was 
not galvanized, lived four hours, and might perhaps, have lived 
longer, but it was killed by a blow on the head. 

And from results such as these, we may see how egregious- 
ly those persons err, who recommend magnetism or electricity, 
as a " cure-all " for every disease ; in many cases we know it 
may be highly useful, but in others it may prove decidedly in- 
jurious. 

3. The neurilema, or covering of the nerves, is not a non- 
conductor, as it should be, were the nerves themselves the 
channels for the conveyance of the magnetic forces. Hence, 
as the muscles and other organs into which the nerves run, are 
good conductors, there is no way for confining the galvanic 
fluid in the nerves. Hence, the power of the nervous system 
is not, and cannot be, either Magnetism, Electricity or Gal- 
vanism ; for each of these is purely physical, and confined to 
the mineral kingdom. (20) Thus the motions which evolve 
vital or mental phenomena, are as much above these lower 
laws, as Life and Reason are above the mineral kingdom. 

4. The nerves conduct as well after death, when neither 
electricity or any other stimulus will excite contraction in the 
muscles to which they lead. Were the nervous energy mag- 
netic, this agency should produce the same results on the 
muscles after death, when conveyed through the nerves, that 
it does during life. 

5. The results produced by experiments with magnetism, or 
electricity, upon the nervous system, prove just nothing at all ; 
because we know that precisely the same results have been 
produced without galvanism, by mere mechanical or chemical 
stimuli. (49.) 

Muscular Motion. 

122. But we are referred to certain phenomena of life, which 
it is supposed cannot be accounted for without the electrical 
forces ; such, for instance, as the contractility and expansion 
of the muscles. Muscles are said to contract. This is not 
philosophically correct. There is no condensation of their 
substance. What the fibres lose in one direction they make 
up in another. What we call contraction, is, therefore, no- 
thing more nor less than a new arrangement of the particles. 

The serous surfaces are said to be positive ; mucous ne- 
'gative ; and the will acts on the voluntary muscles, through 
these antagonizing forces. To this I reply : 

1. This is mere assumption, and begging the very thing to 
be proved. Chemical action involves the electrical or galvanic 
forces, but it has never been proved that the serous and mucous 



120 BOOK OF HUMAN NATURE. 

surfaces are so charged with these different " magnetic forces,' 
that they may be controlled by the human will, merely. 

2. If we should admit that these surfaces were galvanic, or 
magnetic, it would not be sufficient to account for the contrac- 
tility of the muscles. The phenomena of muscular motion 
have never been induced by galvanism, merely, and it is yet to 
be proved that they ever can be. I mean exactly such mo- 
tions as are put forth by the human mind. 

3. The fact, that muscles, after being removed from the 
body, lose their contractility sooner by being galvanized, can 
never be reconciled to this notion about " magnetic " action in 
the nervous system ; and the muscles should never lose their 
excitability (as long as decomposition has not taken place) if 
this theory were true. Nay, more, decomposition ought never 
to take place, if you keep the magnetic forces in constant 
action upon the human body according to this theory. 

4. This notion assumes, that the blood is circulated by the 
magnetic forces. But how can this be when we know that 
the middle coat of the arteries does not contract from galvan- 
ism at all ! * 

■ 5. If this theory were true, then we should be able to control 
the magnetic forces, out of the body, by the will; so, for in- 
stance, as to move the magnetic needle ! Why not ? Nay, 
more — 

^ 6. We should be able to communicate magnetism from our 
own brains to inanimate substances, by a mere effort of the 
will. But this was never done. I am well aware, indeed, 
that such things have been assumed, or asserted to have been 
done ; but the proof has never been given. As for instance, a 
table has been seen to move, without any visible means ; and it 
has been assumed, (by those who did not know how else to 
account for the phenomena,) that it was done, by certain mag- 
netic, or "odyle" forces, thrown unconsciously out of the 
human brains, independently of the mind, or volition of any per- 
son present! But, such assumptions are not argument. In 
such cases there is no " Relation " shown to have existed be- 
tween the effects and the alleged brains as the cause. Nor 
is this all, it never has been shown, that the brains act inde- 
pendently of the mind. 

7. Admitting the serous and mucous surfaces to be positive 
and negative magnetism, it would follow that these forces 
would be deranged or annihilated by coming in contact with 
any considerable quantity of iron ; or by the application of 
galvanism to the human system. Friction of an electric pro- 
duces electricity ; but no such results follow the friction of the 

■ . I I ■ ' ■ J -. » 

• Harrison. 



SEROUS AND MUCOUS SURFACES. 121 

living body. The application of an ordinary magnet produces 
no effects, though it be ever so powerful, except in a few 
isolated cases where there is a peculiar temperanaent developed 
by disease, or the process of pathetizing. And even when 
persons are susceptible to any peculiar influences from the im- 
ponderable fluids, it is found that their effects scarcely agree 
in any two cases, nor scarcely in any two experiments at dif- 
ferent times upon the same person. And on this hypothesis, 
how can it be shown that in certain cases at least, we should 
not be able to restore life by a galvanic battery ? It is not 
known that death, or the mere cessation of life, produces any 
change of structure in any part of the system ; and in cases 
of death by fright, or excessive joy, why should not life be re- 
stored by an application of the ordinary electrical forces ? 

The electrical forces may be evolved by the chemical pro- 
cesses constantly carried on in the system ; (27, 43.) but Dr. 
Stark and Bischoff have proved, that the nerves are among 
the worst possible conductors of electricity or galvanism ; 
from which it follows, that these fluids can neither be life, nor 
the sole agents by which its functions are carried on. 

And, thus we see, how egregiously those persons are de- 
ceived who are induced to wear "galvanic bands," "mag- 
netic belts ;" and to use various " electrical" remedies so 
called, for the cure of disease. That diseases may, some- 
times, have been relieved or even cured where such processes 
have been adopted, we can readily admit, but there is another, 
and a far more rational way of accounting for such cures, 
familiar to those who have studied the laws of the human 
mind.* 

Serous and Mucous Surfaces. 

122. It is said that the positive force is located in the 
serous surfaces, and this gives the sense of feeling. Also, 
that the brains are positive, and hence attract all impressions 
made upon the senses. But there are two difficulties in the 
way of this assumption : 

1. Positive repeZ^ positive ! Hence, if the serous surfaces 
be positive^ and the brains be positive, also, the brains and 
serous surfaces must repel one another. 

2. The positive force, we are told, " gives the sense of 
feeling," the same as we have it in the surfaces of the body. 
If so, then, how is it that the brains are so insensible to touch? 
How is it that the optic nerve is so insensible to every thing 
but light ? How is it that the cerebrum, the grand organ of 



* Vm " Bdok of P6ych<)l!bgy,'* i)* 
6 



122 BOOK OF HUMAN NATURE. 

thought, and the centre of all feeling and sensation, itself has 
no feeling at all 1 Especially, if the brains be a real galvanic 
battery, which eliminate the vital energy which feels, how- 
shall we account for it, that that important organism may be 
cut, and in fact taken out of the cranium, without giving so 
much sense of pain even as the mere prick of a pin on the 
surface of the hand ? Is it not too plain to be doubted, that 
if magnetism were the sense of feeling, every part of the sys- 
tem should be alike sensitive to pain from contact with any 
disturbing body 1 Indeed, we should suppose, that in those 
portions where we could find the greatest amount of nervous 
matter, we should find the most magnetism, and consequently 
the highest sense of feeling from touch. 

Finally, there is no necessity for such a mineral fluid, as 
the phenomena of voluntary and involuntary muscular action 
can be produced and accounted for without it. The facts I 
have already detailed tending to show the chemical nature of 
the nutritive fluid, (45.) and the nervous matter, are abundantly 
sufficient for demonstrating what I have here stated. At the 
same time we must not lose sight of the fact, that the mucous 
and serous surfaces are negative and positive, and that they 
may and do act upon each other in such a manner as is in 
strict analogy with the lower laws of electricity and mag- 
netism. But, analogy, is not identity. 

Motioiss of tlie Mittticitive Fiidid. 

123. 1. Some of the tissues are elastic, and when the cause 
of their distention is removed, they contract of course. Elas- 
ticity arises from the peculiar molecular arrangement of the 
parts. We know that heat expands ; now, apply cold to the 
arteries, and they contract, the same indeed, as the veins, 
lymphatics and lacteals do when touched by an acid, or ex- 
posed to cold. 

2. What is muscular contraction? Why, an alteration in 
the relative position of the particles. Now, I have shown, 
that change evolves heat ; motion is chemical action. But, 
what causes one part of a muscle to expand and the other to 
contract at the same instant of time ? (30.) I answer, pre- 
cisely the same nutritive fluid of which the muscle is made, 
and the same fluid that carries an impression from an antici- 
pated blow from the brain to the spinal system, and thence 
back to the muscles of the eye, which it closes up to prevent 
the anticipated injury. (57.) The same nutritive fluid that is 
transmitted by the mind into a paralyzed limb, by which the 
paralytic is enabled to use his hand ; and only to use it while 
he keeps his eye upon it. The same nutritive fluid which is 
intercepted by a ligature, while a ligature has no effect upon 



ABNORMAL MOTIONS. 123 

the transmission of the " magnetic" fluid, as every person 
acquainted with the suhject knows. And it is well known, 
also, that primitive nervous fibres and muscles maintain their 
motive power when insulated within themselves — a fact for 
which we cannot account upon the electrical theory. How 
very much this power (excitability, muscular motion) is con- 
trolled by the laws of association, (67,) will appear if we con- 
sider the habits in writing, trades, performing on musical in- 
struments, handicraft, and the tones and manner of speaking 
common to each person. (69.) 

We know, also, that the nutritive power decays with the 
vital energies of the system. Hence it would seem to be in 
the blood, and, consequently, always present, to be acted upon, 
or to act, so as to subserve the specific and general purposes 
of the animal economy. 

AI>noriial Motions. 

124. This view enables us to account for those strange 
phenomena that occur in decapitated animals and acephalous 
infants ; as, also, all those phenomena denominated " the re- 
flexion of sensory impressions into matter," such as often 
occur without any brains. Thus, if liquor be poured into the 
mouth, it is unconsciously swallowed ; the position is changed 
in sleep ; and limbs of animals may be made to move after 
decapitation, by simply irritating their nerves, or portions of 
the spinal marrow ; and not only so, but magnetism may, 
sometimes, be generated and evolved from the nerves by 
mechanical irritation ; and from such facts, (and volumes 
might be filled with them) we infer, that the muscular power 
is not generated by the brains, as many have assumed ; and, 
to suppose this power is electricity, magnetism, or galvanism, 
is to suppose the highest forms of life to be controlled, merely, 
by the lower laws of the mineral kingdom. Even the vege- 
table kingdom, as we have seen, is evolved from the lower 
mineral kingdom ; and, as animal life, sensation, and mind, are 
above the vegetable and mineral kingdom, so the nervous 
motions are above the mere mineral forces which constitute 
magnetism or electricity. 

However much these forces may indeed be concerned 
in the evolution of the lower forms of life, (121.) we do 
not apply the term earthly to a living plant, because it grows 
out of the earth. Nor should ^'e call nervous phenomena 
electrical, merely because the living organism has germinated 
in the mineral and vegetable kingdoms, upon which it sub-, 
sists. 



124 BOOK OF HUMAN NATUKE. 



Beauty. 

125. The perfection in the development of Forms, consti- 
tutes their degrees of physical or mental symmetry and beau- 
ty. In the Human Organism there are unnumbered circles 
combined into forms, and when they are harmoniously devel- 
oped, vi'e have beauty and perfection, which are perceived and 
appreciated just in proportion as the mind is sufficiently devel- 
oped in corresponding degrees of harmony and perfection. And 
hence it is that one mind perceives beauty, where another 
perceives none at all, as in the different degrees in which dif- 
ferent minds are developed, it is impossible for them all to 
feel exactly alike in all respects towards one another. One 
person or mind appears beautiful or lovely to such a mind or 
minds only, as have corresponding degrees of perfection and 
harmony in their developments. 

And thus we perceive how it is, that the term beautiful ap- 
plies to what is above the physical. All the higher forms or 
circles from the lower kingdoms having progressed till they 
formed and entered into the highest organism in this rudimen- 
tary state. Man thence becomes the most symmetrical and 
beautiful. Hence we say man is the perfection of all below 
him, and the head of all animated nature. His superiority is 
shown in his capacity to comprehend not only that which is 
below him, but he has spiritual senses also, by which he is ena- 
bled to behold and contemplate the beautiful in the ascending 
spheres that are above. 

From all that has preceded, we now assume, or perhaps it 
may be considered as proved, that all the emotions, volitions, 
actions and manifestations of mind, are the proximate phenom- 
ena of the nutritive fluid. Let us proceed to notice them. 

Tftie Humau Voice. 

126. The tones of voice always correspond to the emotions 
of love. The language uttered corresponds to form, and the 
sense conveyed corresponds to wisdom. Hence the power of 
music and eloquence. Music is the language of excited love, 
and wisdom. Crying, or sounds which express grief, are its 
negative or reversed motions. 

In speaking of the range of the human voice, it is said* 
there are about 9 perfect tones, but 17,592,186,044,415 differ- 
ent sounds ; thus, 14 direct*muscles, alone or together, pro- 
duce 16,363 ; 30 indirect muscles, do., 178,471,828 ; and all 



* Medical TimcB. 



EXTRAOEDINARY RESULTS. 125 

in co-operation produce the number we have named ; and these 
independently of different degrees of intensity. 

The MiMd and Wutritive Fluid. 

127. The effects of joy are well known ; under this emo-^ 
tion, the respiration becomes easy, the face is flushed with 
color, and the entire system seems animated with new life. 
Anger is no sooner excited in the mind than its influence is 
shown in the face, and throughout the muscular system. The 
eye is seen to change quickly, the teeth grate, and the hand 
is clenched in correspondence with this state of mind. The 
vascular system, also, partakes of the general excitement. 
The blood is quickened in its circulation, and hence the heat 
of the body is increased. The secretions become more co- 
pious, and in some cases their quality is perceptibly changed, 
and mental emotions increase urination and defecation, and it 
augments all the secretions and excretions, at times ; thus pro- 
ducing tears, and often bleeding from the nose. Indeed, most 
of the emotions and passions of the human mind, are usually 
shown in the countenance, and excite more or less influence 
over the nutritive fluid. See how it affects the larynx, so as 
to cause the tones of voice to correspond exactly with the 
emotions within. The voice has been truly called a living 
sound. In joy, it is clear and full ; in anger, loud and rough ; 
in fear, it is tremulous and low, as it is also under deep and 
tender emotions. And it is worthy of remark, that those ges- 
tures which are true to nature, are at first perfectly involunta- 
ry or instinctive. (43, 45.) In fear, the face grows pale ; in 
fright, the hands are raised and drawn back; in devotion, or 
joy, the hands are raised and clasped. So in the look of the 
eye, the turn of the lip, wrinkling of the forehead, emotion is 
frequently expressed, with more emphasis than could be done 
in words alone. One hand open, and stretched out, salutes ; 
both open and extended, invite ; and with one finger we direct, 
point out, or command. The head affirms or assents by nod- 
ding, and denies by shaking. Bending forward, it indicates 
devotion, or modesty, and thus the whole body is made by this 
power to talk and express the emotions of the mind. 

£xtrao]*diiiary Re§ult§. 

128. Well authenticated cases are upon record which go to 
show that the mind in some temperaments may so far volun- 
tarily control this fluid, as to move the involuntary muscles, 
and, indeed, suspend the entire functions of the animal sys- 
tem. It is said of Betterton, an actor, that he could, ?.t will, 
render his face bloodless ; and a case is mentioned by Blu- 



126 BOOK OF HUMAN NATURE. 

menbach, of a man who could in the same way eontrol the 
action of his own stomach, A German, now living, by the 
name of Kerner, it is said, possesses the power of suspend- 
ing the action of his own heart.* 

A most extraordinary instance, illustrating this power, is 
given by Dr, Cheyne.f It was in the case of Col. Town- 
shend, who after having been some time indisposed, sent for 
Drs. Bayard and Cheyne, whom he wished to show how he 
could expire and come to life again ! The Colonel then sus- 
pended his breath and pulse entirely for half an hour, and a 
clear looking-glass being held over his face, it was not af- 
fected any more than if he had been actually dead ! Cases are 
reported of this kind in India, where the Hindoos suffer them- 
selves to be buried even, for three or four weeks under 
ground, without food ; — and though very much reduced, they 
revive after being excavated. J 

l>isease aitd I>e3i.tl]L. 

139. The interruption of the Nutritive Fluid is disease and 
death. In this way we must account for cases of disease^ 
insanity, and death, which have occurred from impressions 
made upon the mind. 

It is recorded of a Roman mother, that she instantly died of 
joy, on meeting her son, as he returned from the battle of Can- 
nae, where she supposed he had been slain by the veterans of 
Hannibal. A lady in Kentucky, the wife of David Prentiss, 
Esq., fell dead in an instant, while reading a letter which 
brought her the newti of her husband's death. It was this 
interruption of the Nutritive Fluid which killed the prisoner, 
wlio was made to believe he was bleeding to death, when not a 
drop of his blood had been drawn. The New Zealanders die 
under the same power, when cursed by the Areekee.^ The 
mind, once fully impressed with a conviction of the unerring 
CERTAINTY of death, the nutritive forces are stopped, and 
death is the result. Thus children have been frightened to 
death, or into a state of confirmed idiocy ; thus ignorant pet- 
sons have believed themselves bewitched, and have suffered 
and acted accordingly. (169.) Burton speaks of a Jew in 
France, who walked by chance in the dark over a dangerous 
passage or plank that lay over a brook, without harm ; the 
next day, perceiving what danger he had been in, he dropped 



* London Lancet, Feb. 1843. 

t Treatise on Nervous Diseases, p. 307. 

X London Lancet. 

§ Miss. Herald, vol. 23, p. 314. 



SUBSTANCE OF MIND, 127 

down dead. He further records that at Basil, a child died 
through fright by seeing a malefactor hung in gibbets ; and 
that in the same town, beyond the Rhine, another child died on 
seeing a carcase taken from the grave. Cases of insanity, 
disease and death, are common, from impressions made upon 
the nutritive fluid through the mind. 

The wife of Mr. Jacob Dietrick, (near Mt. Crawford, Va.) 
was frightened to death, recently. Her little daughter for 
sport threw a tree-frog upon her lap, which began jumping up 
towards her face, and so frightened her that she died in two 
or three days. 

Lord George Bentinck is said to have died from the excite- 
ment occasioned by winning jC400,000 on a horse race. 

A most singular instance of terror in the Miman species is 
recorded in the Journal de Medicine, pour Vu 1847. It occur- 
red in the hospital of the Saltpetriere. A female of advanced 
age was so affected with horror on hearing that her daughter, 
with two children in her arms, had precipitated herself out of 
a window, and were killed on the spot, that her skin, in a 
single night, from head to foot, became as black as that of a 
negro. 

"What is tlae Substance of Mind ? 

130. The human mind is thus constituted from substance » 
in correspondence with the development of the constitutional 
elements of matter, love and wisdom in motion from the 
great First Cause. And now, observe how beautifully this 
idea is manifested in Instinct (43) which is so obviously 
carried out and perfected in the nutritive power. For here 
we have love, life, and light, developed by will, in form 
and order, which is wisdom ; and the mental elements thus 
ORGANIZED, uscs the lowcr forms of matter for its own con- 
servation, development, and growth. And thus we can see in 
what sense the mind may be said to be material^ and depend- 
ent upon matter, and how the mind and the nutritive fluid 
reciprocally affect each other. We shall perceive, also, more 
clearly perhaps, in the sequel, the important use that is to be 
made of these facts. 

A lady in Boston a few years since, cured a cancer tumor 
on her own face, nearly as big as a two quart bottle, by merely 
passing the hand of a dead man over it three mornings in suc- 
cession.* I have myself dissipated tumors by merely passing 
my hands over them. The touch of the king's hand was 
formerly supposed to possess peculiar virtue ; and from him to 



* Dr. J. M. Warren. 



128 BOOK OF HUMAN NATUEE. 

be transferred to the " seventh son," in the cure of scrofula, 
which has been called the " King's Evil," from being treated 
so often by the former kings of France and Great Britain. A 
youth is mentioned in Lockhart's Life of Sir Walter Scott, 
who took an enormous quantity of laudanum by mistake, and 
was completely relieved from the ordinary effects of it, by the 
mental concern which it caused him. Dr. J. Gregory had a 
patient (a young man) who was purged by an anodyne, be- 
cause his mind told him it was an aperient. A female patient 
of Sir W. Ellis was actually salivated by bread pills which he 
told her were mercurial. Numerous cases are upon record 
where this Jluid has been so affected by the mind, as to turn 
the hair from black to grey, in a few hours. 

^^ Perfect Niitritiou. .^ 

131. Perfect Nutrition is the Curative Principle in all 
cases, the true, and only Vis Me cicatrix Naturae. 

Further Reasons for this Conclusion. 

133. In the author's Book of Psychology, the reader will 
find a statement of a large number of cases demonstrating the 
truth, as it is believed, of this important principle, and to 
which the reader is desired to refer. If the principle here 
announced be the true one, if this indeed be the hidden unseen 
something, which medication must reach and assist in all 
cases of the successful treatment of disease, then it cannot be 
too distinctly stated, nor too forcibly impressed upon the 
human mind. And whether this suggestion be not sufficient 
to solve, many if not all the conflicting theories and mysteries 
that beset the subject of medication, the intelligent and candid 
reader must judge. For instance : — 

1. That so many different and conflicting methods of drug- 
ging should so often succeed in the cure of disease. How is 
this fact to be accounted for ? To affirm that one or another 
method is mere " quackery," is not satisfactory. Taking the 
reports which the different medical schools have given of each 
other's theories, they are all "quackery," for precisely, in 
this manner have they to some extent spoken of one another. 
And yet, they have all succeeded more or less in the treat- 
ment of disease, and by means- directly diverse and contradic- 
tory. Now, how is this ? We ask these rival methods of 
drugging, to explain, how it is, that disease is cured by 
" quackery ?" but they cannot tell. They either deny that it 
is cured at all, or if it be cured, they tell us that the " curative 
principle" did it in despite of the medication ! Ah, indeed ! 
And, what is that curative principle which does such wonders ? 



PEKFECT NUTRITION. 129 

A " principle" which can cure disease in despite of bad medi- 
cine or poisons, may be well worth the knowing. And, if it 
perform such miracles against the impediments of deleterious 
drugs, what would it not do if properly assisted 1 

2. Nor is this all. It is an admitted fact, that both acute 
and chronic diseases have been cured without any medication 
at all. I do not refer to cases of " spontaneous cure," but to 
diseases that have yielded to a system of treatment without 
medication. How many such have been recorded under the 
name of Hydropathy 1 How many under the name of Pa- 
thetism 1 There was an intelligent, definable method of cure, 
which was perfectly successful. No drugs were used at all ; 
and yet, the cures have been numerous, perfect, and perma- 
nent. How have these cures been performed 1 What secret 
springs in the vital economy have been touched ? What 
mysterious power has been invoked ? What potent charm 
has been used ? 

The only consistent answer, I conceive to be found in the 
above statement. The instinctive or nutritive principle, is 
the agent to be consulted in all attempts for the cure of disease. 

3. And how is it in Homeopathy ? This is a system so 
really unlike the old methods of Allopathy, which applies 
large quantities of drugs, on the assumption that " opposite 
cures opposite ;" that it not only treats diseases on the sup- 
position that " like cures like,"' but uses medication in such 
inconceivably small doses, that according to the former sys- 
tem they amount to nothing at all. And yet, Homeopathy 
cures diseases. But can Allopathy tell how this is done "? 
How else can it be, than by admitting the truth of Hahne- 
mann's idea in respect to the spirituality of man's nature 1 
Hence he conceived the true method of drugging must be the 
selection of congenial or similar substances, by whose " im- 
material virtues" (not a good term) the spiritual or vital dis- 
ease could be cured. Now my argument here is not based on 
the merits of this system, but its cures are referred to for the 
purpose of showing that cures are performed by it for which 
Allopathy can give no consistent solution. And what should 
be borne in mind here, is, that neither of these methods (sys- 
tems perhaps they need not be called) nor, indeed, any other 
of the numerous theories of drugging, do or can account for 
the cures that follow a contrary course of medication. And 
yet, cures are made by them all, including also any amount 
perhaps of disease, sufferings, and death. And, whilff we 
look on and see these different methods of drugging, so op- 
posed and contradictory to one another ; while we notice ihat 
cures are made, we are compelled to go back of all theories, 
beyond all methods of drugging, and interrogate nature her- 



IM BOOK OF HUMAN NATUKE. 

self, as to the rationale of all these different cures. The 
answer has already been stated. (118.) 

Watuire's MetSiod. 

133. Method differs from system in this respect, that while 
the latter term signifies a complete number of Laws, Fate, or 
a course of procedure that is invariable, the former term 
implies more latitude, more capacity for adapting itself to ex 
isting circumstances, so that, if the organism, or the instinc 
tive principle find it impossible to succeed in one direction, it 
will take another. Nature, therefore, may be said to have her 
method or methods (44) of working ; her methods of repairing 
the mischiefs that are done her. As her living intelligent or- 
ganisms, are more complicated, they are more liable to be 
interrupted in their processes. Against this very liability — she 
has provided in this wonderful plastic principle, ever present, 
ever vigilant, ever energizing to conserve and build up the in- 
dividuality, against all those external and internal uncongenial 
forces or substances that tend to break it down. So, that in 
all cases it may be said, she will succeed, she will generate a 
healthy organism; or if the organism be injured, she will re- 
pair the mischief if let alone, and permitted to do so. The 
Nutritive Principle does the best that can be done in all 
cases of medication. Hence, if assistance is to be rendered it 
is to be offered to this principle ; and the only method of 
drugging which can be attempted with safety, must recognize 
not merely the fact of nutrition, but its Method also. Its 
method of commencing the human body, its method of devel- 
opment, of ingestion, retention, and egestion. All these pro- 
cesses have respect to the substances taken|.into the stomach 
and the lungs ; the dress worn upon the external surfaces ; 
light, sounds, odors, habits, exercise, not excepting all that we 
enjoy or suffer from social life, or whatever objects, real or 
imaginary, which impress, excite and control the different 
faculties of the human mind. 

IJuiiatural !>ruggi]ig. 

134. And from the foregoing considerations it becomes 
manifest, how useless, how worse than useless, nay, how dire- 
ful and fatal even, must be the common and prevalent practice 
of drugging. Scarcely one in a cart load of the drugs swal- 
lowed in such immense quantities, but that would make a well 
man sick if he were to take it. Nor is this all. Those nau- 
seous drugs, those patent pills and powders, these poisons by 
•wholesale, are admitted without any reliable knowledge of na- 
ture's method of cure ; they are eaten and gulped down at a 



RECIPROCITY. 181 

venture, as if that were the way to supply the " whole stay and 
staff of life." The plainest rules of physiology are violated 
from generation to generation in the dietetic habits, so that hu 
man beings come into this world diseased ; and, if they do not 
bring a pill or powder in their mouths, it is certain the defence- 
less, helpless little ones are not here long before they have the 
hateful stuff thrust into them. And, so the pill-box, and the 
syrup-bottle become the common appendages of the cradle and 
nursery. True, the poor creatures cry out against these out- 
rages upon their instincts; as does j\ature and reason, and 
sound philosophy. And may we not hope, that the time can- 
not be far distant when a knowledge of physiology and nature's 
method of cure will put an everlasting veto upon these vile and 
hurtful practices ; — when the errors, and evils of patent nostrums 
and drugging generally shall be everywhere dispensed with, 
superseded by the lights of science and the progressive ten- 
dencies of the age.* '~ 

Reciprocity of Mind and SSody. 

135. We can now, perhaps, have a more distinct percep- 
tion as to the sense in which it may be said, the mind and 
the body reciprocally act upon each other. Thus, the Soul 
is the Life, and develops the outer form, which is the Body. 
The Body develops the Mind, or intellectual powers, — and 
from the Mind and Body together, is developed the Human 
Spirit, which lives for ever. The life principle, as we have 
seen, (20) develops the plant in the vegetable kingdom ; and, 
between the internal life principle of the plant, and its exter- 
nal form, the seed^ or spirit of the plant is developed, which la 
an indication or prophecy of the Human Individuality or Spi- 
rit, which continues, and can never be dissolved. 

Illustrations. 

136. 1. The sensation or feeling of exhaustion, from men- 
tal or physical excitement. 

2. Animals run to death, putrify much sooner than others. 
The nutritive fluid supplies the wants of the body, and thus 
keeps up the motions of life against the destructive force of 
oxygen. 

3. And hence, in those cases where there is an abundant 
supply of the nutritive power immediately preceding death, 



* The Author has given his views elsewhere (Book of Health) on 
the subject of Disease and Health, hence it is not necessary to repeat 
them here. 



132 BOOK OF HUMAN NATURE. 

certain parts, as the hair and nails, may grow, after the death 
of the hody. 

4. Deli-rium, which often occurs before death, in cases of 
starvation. 

5. The change produced in the mother's milk, from violent 
passions. Infants have been thrown into convulsions, and in 
some cases killed, by immediately nursing after a fit of anger 
in the mother. 

6. The difficulties which the presence of certain persons 
often produce in the motions of the spinal system, peculiar to 
parturition. It is a fact, of which almost every mother is 
conscious, who has been surrounded by one or more men- 
midwives, during their labors in child-birth, that the pains and 
the process of parturition have often been arrested by the pre- 
sence of a man at those times, and I have known cases where 
nature has utterly refused to proceed with its work, till the 
man-doctor had left the room ! In such cases the motor sys- 
tem sympathises with the mother's mind, and thus its work is 
obstructed. 

And thus we have the voice of Nature against the presence 
of men with mothers, at such times, except it be the husband 
and father. Modesty, delicacy, propriety, the safety of mo- 
ther and child, all cry out against the presence of men-mid- 
wives. For more than five thousand years, human beings 
were born without such an outrage being once thought of. In 
cases of difficulty surgeons might be called, but I am satisfied 
that most cases of difficulty that have occurred were brought 
on through the mother's mind, occasioned by her outraged 
modesty, in being compelled, against nature, to submit her 
person to the examination of a man-midwife ! Midwifery 
belongs to females, and they should be informed and educa- 
ted £0 as to rescue their own business back again into 
their own hands, as it remained from the beginning of the 
world till the year 1663, when a mistress of Louis XIV. of 
France, without any anticipation of needing surgical aid, 
called in a man to attend her, during her labor ! So, we 
see, that this practice had an infamous origin, and, from that 
time to the present, it has never been wholly free from the 
disgrace in which it was first commenced. 

Cerebral Kxciteiaient. 

137. From what has been said illustrating the nature of the 
nutritive fluid, (49, 72) we may now see how it is that the 
cerebral organs become excited, and how they may be increas- 
ed or diminished in their activity. 

I. The power of each function is increased by exercise ; it 



II 



MIND AND BODY. 133 

is so with the muscles, and thus with the cereoral organs 
(54.) Motion directs, and draws to each organ, the nutritive 
fluid, and thus its power is increased for the moment, or when 
the number of the molecules are increased, then the power is 
permanently augmented. (53.) 

2. The mind may be concentrated on one subject, through 
one function ; the nutritive fluid is increased in that organ for 
the time being, and its power is thus augmented. (53, 54.) 

3. We see what should be done, when we find out that one 
or more of our faculties are too strong or active. We should 
exercise our wisdom in governing ourselves, in view of that 
fact, and thus avoid all those associations (177, 178) which 
would have a tendency to concentrate the nutritive fluid in 
those organs. We give this fluid another direction by exer- 
cising other organs. (72.) 

Abnormal Cerebral Actioii. 

138. In the same manner we are to account for those ab- 
normal or artificial cerebral excitements, produced in certain 
temperaments ; or, when a patient is in a state of trance, by 
touching the head, or pointing, merely, at different parts of 
the body.* 

It is certain, that placing the hand on different parts of the 
human body, directs the mind, and thus calls the nutritive fluid 
to that, or its corresponding part. 

1. Touching the head may increase the temperature, and 
thus augment the nutritive fluid in the organs touched. 

2. The patient, in most cases, associates in his own mind, 
the faculty, with the place touched. His own mind directs 
the nutritive fluid to the organ, and it becomes excited in 
that way. (49.) 

3. There is still another way in which these excitements 
may be produced, in cases where the patient does not, in his 
normal state, know anything about phrenology. He may have 
intuitive knowledge of the locations of the cerebral organs, 
and when touched, his own mind directs the nutritive fluid to 
the appropriate organs. (104.) 

4. And there is another method, still. When such cerebral 
excitements are said to be caused by the mere will of the ope- 
rator, they may be produced by suggestions ; by associations, 
(69) by intuition, (104, 105) or spiritual sympathy. The last 
named is the most rare, and as there are so many other ways 
for those results to occur, it is not surprising that operators 



* I first excited the separate cerebral organs in Aug. 1841. But I 
very soon found that those excitements could not be depended upon, as 
I at first supposed. 



134 BOOK OF HUMAN KATUEE. 

should have been so frequently deceived in this matter as they 
evidently have been. But in neither of these ways is there 
any necessity for any such " magnetic or odyle fluid," as ma- 
ny have supposed. And, even if we were to admit the exist- 
ence, or transmission of such a fluid, out of one system into 
another^ it would by no means be sufficient to account for the 
phenomena that occur. As for instance : 1. When the fluid 
is said to proceed out of one head into another, or from one 
nervous system into another, what law directs the fluid to light 
upon the right place ? 2. If a fluid should be thus eliminated 
out of one body, by one mind, into another body, what pre- 
vents the fluid from being diffused throughout the system ? 3. 
Or, why should that fluid, after it has left one mind, and en- 
tered the body of the patient, produce one result rather than 
another ? Who can tell ? These questions were never an- 
swered ; and consistently with the notions that have prevailed 
in favor of" animal magnetism," or the odyle force, they nev- 
er can be answered. 

Ctiemism on tlie Mind. 

139. Chemical agents, as we have seen, not only act upon 
sensation so as to excite, or suspend it, entirely, but they 
extend their influence in suspending, or exciting each of the 
mental faculties, also. The stimulants increase to a greater 
or less degree the quantity of blood which flows into the brains, 
in a given time ; as a consequence of this, the whole cerebral 
system is excited, provided the stimulation does not exceed a 
certain limit ; but the local excitement differs according to the 
different stimulant employed. Thus, ammonia, musk, castor, 
wine, and ether, increase the powers of imagination and per- 
ception ; the empyreumatic oil^ cause peevishness, melancholy 
and visions. Phosphorus acts upon the generative functions ; 
so also, does iodine, and at the same time induces sadness. 
Cantharides excite, and camphor diminishes, the sexual propen- 
sity. Arsenic causes melancholy ; gold, hope ; mercury, in- 
creased sensitiveness (mental) ; and carbonic acid gas, placidity. 
Among the narcotics, opium stimulates the sexual desires, the 
intellectual powers, and the imagination. Belladonna dulls 
the mental faculties ; hyoscyamus causes moroseness, jealousy, 
and violence ; cicuta weakens the understanding ; digitalis 
diminishes, and saffron increases the sexual desires ; cahabis 
causes calmness ; and amanita muscaria, courage ; tobacco 
operates in the same way as opium.* 



* Dr. Otto, Northern Jour., of Med., March, 1846. 



CEEEBKAL ACTION. 185 

Congenital Plienomena. 

140. If we keep in view what has been said" illustrating the 
peculiar nature of the nutritive forces, (35-45,) we may now 
be somewhat prepared to understand the true causes which 
evolve all the phenomena common to the human mind ; and 
from which it will be seen, that all the emotions, volitions and 
mental manifestations, which ever did, or ever can take place, 
may be traced to their appropriate causes, so that not one of 
them can truly be said to be supernatural, above or below 
nature. 

1. I have shown (36, 37, 38, 61, 62) that the mind of the 
foetus is developed from the nutritive forces of the parents — 
thus forms and colors are transmitted by the mother's mind to 
the child, and hence the " marks," and constitutional tendencies 
with which human beings always come into the world. Now, 
on the assumption that this fluid is elaborated, distributed and 
controlled, by those motions which constitute the elements of 
the mind, (118) the following results are easily accounted for : 

Dr. Howship relates the case of a woman who was crossing 
a frozen river, in a state of pregnancy. The ice cracked and 
burst, and she was terribly frightened. When the child was 
born its skin was gaped considerably in several places. The 
sight of an epileptic has been known to transfer this disease to 
the foetus ; and a case is reported in which a child was born 
with small-pox, in consequence of the exposure of its mother, 
only thirty days previous to the birth of the child, and this too 
when the mother had been perfectly secured from varioloid, by 
vaccination, some thirty years before. There wer£ upon the 
body of the child, about one hundred and seventy regularly 
formed small-pox pustules, of the usual size, and filled with a 
yellowish purulent matter.* 

The sight of an ugly or disagreeable person has been known 
to produce an effect upon the features of the embryo. 

I knew a child, born in Athol, Mass., whose face, hands, 
and other parts of its body, partook of the shape and color of a 

* New YorTc Lancet, May 21, 1842.— Two similar cases are given in 
the same work, for March 26 and April 26, 1842 ; and another in the 
London Lancet for Feb, 4, 1842. And from such facts as the follow- 
ing, it would seem that the same law predominates over the suscepti- 
biUties of the feathered tribe, also. "A hen belonging to b'enj. 
Gallaway, Esq., of Weakley County, Tenn., was bitten by a rattle- 
snake, but by proper attention the wound was cured. However, 
strange to tell, every Qgg laid after that time by this hen, had a picture 
of a rattlesnake represented upon the shell I" — New Yoi'k Sun, April 
14, 1843. ^ . ^ 



186 BOOK OF HUMAN NATURE. 

toad, a calf's head, and double cucumbers, double squashes, 
and the like. The mother's mind was intensely occupied by- 
each of those articles, some five or six months before it was 
born. The fluid from which that fcetus was generated, re- 
ceived its life and /orm, from the mother's mind. (49, 62, 72.) 
In phenomena like these, we have ocular demonstration 
of the material nature of the mind, inasmuch as we know that 
the mind receives, and transfers colors, as in cases where 
we see these '' marks" upon children, exhibiting precisely the 
color of the/rwzY, animal or thing, which made the impression 
on the mother's mind. 

Temperasaients. 

141. In the composition of the human body we have the 
osseous, muscular, vascular, and nervous systems, each more or 
less distinct, and yet so united that one could not exist without 
the other. As we have seen, each is developed in succession, 
from the preceding, so that ane is the germ or life of the 
other ; life, sensation, the soul, mind, spirit, which develops the 
whole, through the nutritive fluid, so that the nervous matter 
is not only the life, the soul of each of the others, but it com- 
bines a number of distinct elements, or systems, with numerous 
and appropriate functions and susceptibilities ; and the degrees 
in which we find the different qualities of the nervous matter 
apportioned in each system, together with the qualities and 
quantities of the fluids, muscles, bones, and the strength of the 
digesting, circulating, absorbing, and breathing organs, deter- 
mine the idiosyncrasy of each person. • From this, it will be 
seen that there may not be any two of precisely the same 
temperament, and the reasons, also, why one person is more 
easily affected from any given cause than another. 

Dergees iu tl&e Temperaments. 

142. The first thing to be considered in acquiring a know- 
ledge of character, is to be able to distinguish the proportions 
in which the three systems are united in one body. For con- 
venience in describing, a number of terms have been used, 
indicating the animal and mental economy, but I believe the 
following classification will be found as accurate as any other, 
and perhaps more in agreement with the human constitution : 

1. Vital. Persons of this temperament have black hair, 
dark skin, moderate fullness, and much firmness of flesh, with 
harshly-expressed outline of person. . The functions partake 
of great energy of action, which extends to the brains ; and 
the countenance, in consequence, shows strong, marked, and 
iecided features. Like each of the following, it has three 



TEMPEEAMENTS. 187 

degrees of development, which correspond with the three 
systems constituting the human body. 

2. The Motive is indicated by well-defined forms, moderate 
plumpness of person, firmness of flesh, with ruddiness of 
countenance. It is marked by great activity of the blood- 
vessels, fondness for exercise, and an animated countenance. 
The brains partake of the general state, and are active. 

3. The Cerebral, or Mental. Persons with this tempera- 
ment have fine, thin hair, thin skin, small, thin muscles, quick- 
ness in muscular motion, paleness of countenance, and often 
delicate health. The whole nervous system, including the 
brains, is predominantly active. 

Instead of attempting a description of each subdivision of 
these three temperaments, in detail, it may be sufficient here, 
to notice simply three of their most general combinations, cor- 
responding with the above, and with the inherent elements of 
the human mind. 

CoBiibiuation of Teiiipcraiineiif§. 

143. 1. The Apathetic, distinguishable by a round form of 
the body, softness of the muscular system, repletion of the 
cellular tissue, fair hair, and a pale, clear skin. It is accom- 
panied by languid vital action, with weakness and slowness in 
the circulation. The brains, as a part of the system, are also 
slow, languid, and feeble in their action, and the mental mani- 
festations are proportionally weak. 

2. Antipathetic. Large firmness and resistance, aversion 
and destructiveness. 

3. Sympathetic. This is a combination of the motive and 
cerebral temperaments, with large developments of benevo- 
lence, suavity, love, and imitation. Persons of this combina- 
tion have either light hair, or very soft black hair, blue eyes, 
and fair complexion. 



138 book: of human nature. 



PHENOMENA. 

CONGENITAL, CORRELATTVE, ABNORMAL. 



Constitutional Tendencies. 

144. The vital, mental, and spiritual phenomena, strictly 
abnormal, are such as are developed by the want of harmony 
in the original elements of mind, or rather, by the want of 
unity in their appropriate functions or motion's. 

1. One class of diseases and corresponding phenomena, 
are evolved by the love principle, without wisdom. What 
we call constitutional tendencies are formed in this way ; and 
thus we are to account for cases of adepsity, like that of Dan- 
iel Lambert, and others, where one part of the body, or one or 
more of the fingers, are congenitally large, and which continue 
so through life, unless they are amputated. 

l>rean&!§, Trance^ §oinnainI>iiii§in. 

145. And by the same laws we account for many dreams, 
visions, delusions, and causes of insanity and idiotcy. 

2. Another class of abnormal phenomena are the results of 
irregular motions in the elements of love or will principles 
combined. This includes all those results which come to pass 
incidentally by impressions made upon the nutritive fluid, and 
they disturb the regular functions, both of the mind and the 
body. Dreams occur in this way, for dreaming is a state of 
partial activity in the mental organs, between sound sleep and 
wakefulness. Whatever, therefore, tends to increase the cir- 
culation, and to destroy the balance between the periods of 
activity and rest peculiar to the circulating system, increases 
the mental states, analagous and peculiar to a state of dream- 
ing. Cases of trance, like that of William Tennant, the Tyrol 
virgins, the Seeress of Provoorst, and many others, have oc- 
curred in this way. Natural somnambulism is that state in 
which the motive power is active ; and while the external 



ABNORMAL PHENOMENA. 13^ 

senses and memory are asleep, the wisdom becomes excited, 
and hence they do see and hear things of which they have 
no recollection when in the natural state. At other times 
there is little or no motion in the muscles, and the person 
sleeps for weeks, and even months. 

A lady is mentioned by Dr. MacNish, who spent three- 
fourths of her life in sleep. A woman in Renault slept from 
seventeen to eighteen hours a day, for fifteen years. De Moi- 
vre slept twenty hours out of the twenty-four ; and Thomas 
Parr slept away the greater part of his life. Other cases are 
well known, where persons have slept a week, a month, and 
six weeks at a time, and one* who slept at one time four 
weeks, and at another, four months. Of course, these per- 
sons took nourishment during this time, but they were, never- 
theless, in a state of abnormal sleep. 

And so other persons are constitutionally disposed to egre- 
gorises, or abnormal wakefulness. The case of Robert F. 
Gourly is well known. f He went without sleep in 1833, 
when forty years old, about six weeks, and after that he took 
no sleep at all, few the space of three years ! An acquaintance 
of his informed me at the time, that he had no doubt of the 
fact, but he perceived that Mr. G. was evidently insane, as we 
should know any one must be, whose normal sleep was thus 
disturbed. 

Many persons disposed to fall into what is called trance, or 
such a state of sleep, have been by their friends supposed to 
be dead, and hence they were buried while alive ! One case 
of this kind I knew, and accounts of others have often been 
published.:}: 

Fits. 

146. 3. Another class includes both mental and physical 
abnormal phenomena, evolved by the want of harmony be- 
tween love, or will, and wisdom, either asleep or awake, such 



* Samuel Chilton, Tinsbury, Eng., 1694. 

•j- Published in the Boston Medical and Surgical Journal, 1842. 

X In order to guard against premature interments, tliere is attached 
to most of the cemeteries in Germany, a hall wliere the dead remain 
some time before being committed to the ground. In this hall, the 
body, neatly attired, is laid upon a couch — before the lips is placed a 
mirror which the slightest breath would cloud, and between the fin- 
gers a string, which, on the slightest movement, causes a bell in the 
department of the keeper to ring. This hall is visited night and day, 
hourly, by vigilant inspectors, and it is stated that not a year passes 
that the bell is not rung by one of the supposed corpses ! Similar 
precautions should be adopted in every burial place in America. In- 
disputable facta conclusively indicate their necessity. 



140 BOOK OF HUMAN NATUEE.- 

as too much or too little sleep, fits, convulsions, spasms, and 
insanity. 

The case of Miss Sarah Burbeck is well known.* I saw 
her three years since, and witnessed a sight which it would 
be useless for me, or any one else, to attempt to describe. For 
some fifteen years she has not been conscious of having en- 
joyed one moment of sound sleep. During this time she has 
been*confined to her bed, the pillows and bolsters of which have 
of late years, been made of India rubber, so as to break the 
force of the terrible convulsions to which every limb and joint 
in her entire frame is ever and anon subjected, with such in- 
conceivable power, that many of her bones have been long 
since dislocated. 

Sometimes she is elevated from her bed, in an instant, per- 
pendicularly ; and at other times pinned to the wall, or made 
to spin like a top without the least effort. Then she may be 
tossed up to the plastering overhead, or thrown with violence 
from her bed upon the floor. At other times her hands will 
be drawn up with so much force as to bruise her face, and thus 
she has knocked out one of her own eyes. 

I noticed, when in her presence, that speaking of her suf- 
ferings tended to bring on the convulsions. And in the same 
neighborhood I found another young lady, who, for about two 
years, had been similarly afilicted, induced, undoubtedly, by 
what she had seen and heard of Sarah JBurbeck. 

Moiv iBiduced? 

147. An English paper, (the Manchester Guardian,) men- 
tions the case of a young man named Pixton, who dreamed 
three several nights that he had been drowned in the River 
Rollin. In joke, he directed his family as to the disposal of 
his effects in case his dreams should be fulfilled. He went to 
bathe in that river a few days afterwards, swam about some 
time, dived into a deep part, and did not re-appear. An hour 
and a half elapsed before his body was recovered. 

The dream of this young man may have been the occasion 
of his death; that is, he may have become fascinated, so to 
speak, with the idea, so as to lose his self-control, and thus he 
perished. So the young lady, at Niagara Falls, was fascinated 
on looking over the precipice ; and, losing her self-control, she 
fell, and was dashed to pieces on the rocks below. 

Always, when persons become fascinated with a sense of 
danger, in this way, they should be Pathetised, and thus the 
spell may be broken, their minds directed another way, or 
imbued with the thoughts of other subjects, till they are re- 
lieved from the mischievous hallucination. 

* Salem, Mass* 



ABNORMAL PHENOMENA. 141 

« 

Had this method been taken with Mr. Reese, who died 
under similar circumstances in Maryland a year or two since, 
he might have undoubtedly been saved. The following ac- 
count of his case was given in the papers at the time : — 

Death of Mr. Jacob Reese. On the day of his death, Mr. 
Reese was engaged in seeding oats, and towards evening he 
was startled by a voice, apparently at his elbow, saying, " You 
may sow, but yoa shall not reap!" He looked around, and 
seeing no one, continued his work of seeding, attributing it, as 
he afterwards stated, to his imagination. At every step, how- 
ever, the warning was repeated, and at last unable to bear it, 
he proceeded home to his wife. He was persuaded by her 
that it was only his imagination ; and finding that he had no 
fever and did not complain of unusual indisposition, she in- 
duced him to return to the field. There, however, the same 
solemn warning voice attended him at every step — " You may 
sow, but you shall not reap !" — and in a state of extreme agi- 
tation, he again ceased work and went home. He there took 
an early supper, was shortly after attacked with swelling in 
the throat, and before sunrise next morning was a corpse.* 

In such cases can there be any doubt but that death is 
caused by an '• idea 1" And yet, some persons aflfect to make 
light of the statement that a mortal may be entranced by his 
own idea or views, when he thinks of spirits. And, we are 
asked if "any thing can act upon itself?" I answer, cer- 
tainly. Any complicated organism may act upon itself; that 
is, supposing there are fifty subordinate organs, one of them 
may become so much excited, as to control all the others. 
And the cause of that excitement, that is, the remote cause, 
we may not be able to find out of the organism itself altogether. 
So the organ of fear may be so much excited by the mere 
ruffling of a leaf, (external) that the excitement of the sys- 
tem may extend, till disease and death have ensued. In such 
cases it is not unphilosophical certainly to affirm that the 
organism acts upon itself. Indeed, how else, can man be said 
to be a perfect organism, or a sovereign individual, if he have 
not self-control, conscious or unconscious ? 

I>i§ease. 

148. The want of harmony and perfection in the ingestive, 
retentive and egestive motions, peculiar to each system com- 
posing the human body, is disease. The inherent or instinc- 
tive motions of each elementary principle, by which the nutri- 
tive fluid is elabored and governed, tend toward the greatest 

* Centreville, Queen Anne's CouDtjr— (Md.) Tim'^, 



142 BOOK OF HUMAN NATURE. 

perfection and harmony in the development of the whole or- 
g-anism which is possible both in sickness and in health. Thus, 
Nature always does the best that can be done with the ma- 
terials it has to work with for the time being, and hence, the 
greatest amount of health, so to speak, is always enjoyed when 
nature is the least obstructed, either by drugs, the state of the 
mind, food, air, &c. (90.) But when, from any cause, these 
motions are interrupted or increased, in any one part, so as to 
destroy the harmony of the whole, that interruption, or increase, 
is disease. Diseases, therefore, may, and should be classed in 
correspondence with the motions which originate that state or 
change to which this term is applied. For whichever system, 
whether the vital, motive or cerebral, be diseased, in every 
case there is disturbance in the nutritive fluid. (105.) In such 
cases, more or less is communicated than is necessary to sup- 
ply the natural wants of the system ; the circulating, assimi- 
lating, absorbing, and excreting processes are interrupted, and 
inflammation or congestion ensues : one part is wasted for the 
want of a due supply, and another is enlarged with unhealthy 
deposits. The temperature is now increased or diminished ; 
and hence, as health consists in a regular series of alternating 
conditions or motions, each embracing a special period of time, 
so disease must be nothing more nor less than an increase or 
diminution of the amount of the same motions or conditions, 
and is universally alternative with a period of comparative 
health. When the disturbance is merely functional we call 
the disease acute ; and chronic when it has continued a suffi- 
cient length of time to alter the structure of the parts. 

As the proximate cause of disease is in the nutritive fluid, it 
is manifest how pernicious — and I might add — how m^jrderous 
are the prevalent and contradictory methods of drugging for its 
cure. Were this the proper place, I believe I could satisfy 
some of my readers at least, that probably in no one thing was 
the world ever more deceived ; in no one thing was the multi- 
tude ever more " humbugged" than in the use of medicinal 
drugs, " powders," " pills," " syrups," and " panaceas." No 
" profession," no " trade," ever combined more mischief, in its 
ultimate results, than the " art" of drugging, which has made 
more misery, and destroyed more lives than alcohol or the 
sword. From the beginning it has been subjected to constant 
change, ever and anon putting on a new phase, and luring the 
invalid on with fresh promises of life and health, while " ma- 
ladies, ghastly spasms, racking tortures, qualms," have been 
swallowed in the forms of powders and patent nostrums. 
Strictly speaking, no medicine ever did or ever can cure dis- 
ease, any more than it can produce life. 



ABNORMAL PHENOMENA. 143 

£ii§si,iiil:y. 

149. If we suppose disease to be another word fOr discord 
in the vital system, or in those spiritual motions which generate 
the nutritive jiuid^ then it must follow that what we denominate 
insanity, though its remote cause may be traced to the vital 
system, yet is discord in the mental system, or in those higher 
motions peculiar to the cerebral matter which constitutes in- 
telligence. 

When one or more of the mental organs become so impaired 
or excited in their exercises that it is carried beyond a healthy 
action, such action as ceases to be in harmony with the healthy 
action of the other organs, and so far as to be shown in the 
conduct or mental exercises for any time, we pronounce it a 
case of insanity, or monomania. Hence we see the effects 
often produced by a violent blow upon the head ; or the effects 
produced on the mind when the brains become charged from 
the stomach, or other parts of the body too highly stimulated. 

Monomania is the result of the morbid action of one organ. 
We call it insanity when the entire brains are permanently 
diseased, or a number of the organs together. In a word, all 
morhid action of one or more organs, produces derangement in 
the mental exercises. This is so plain, that no one will at^ 
tempt to deny it ; certainly no one who admits the claims of 
Phrenology. 

But it becomes a serious question as to how we shall be able 
to decide between sanity and insanity ? How or where shall 
the line be drawn between monomania, and the healthy action 
of all the cerebral organs ? This may be as difficult as it is to 
decide on the line which divides light from darkness ; for there 
can be no doubt but that the mental organs are often excited to 
unhealthy action, without giving the least suspicion to any one, 
that the person is laboring under monomania. 

A pamphlet has recently been published containing the an- 
nual report of the Bloomingdale Lunatic Asylum, in which it 
is attempted to be shown that persons with hair and eyes of a 
peculiar color, are more liable to insanity than others. The 
tables given in the report referred to, certainly exhibit soma 
very remarkable facts. From one of these tables it appears 
that of the 119 inmates of the Asylum, 4 have sandy hair ; 1 
red ; 12 light brown ; 30 brown ■, 37 dark brown ; 14 very dark 
brown; and 21 black. This would seem to indicate that those 
having dark hair are far more liable to insanity than others. 

The pamphlet in question also shows the same remarkable 
fact in reference to the color of the eye. Of the 119 confined, 
33 have blue eyes; 41 grey; 16 hazel; 27 chesnut; and 2 
black. Of the females among thi« number, grey is the most 
frequent) but of the males, blue. 



144 BOOK OF HUMAN NATURE. 



Spheres. 

150. As there are various senses in which this term is often 
used, it may be necessary for us here to define what we mean 
by it : 

1. It is used to signify a perfect orb, or globe, which is in 
every part equally distant from a point called its centre. 

2. The extent, circuit, or form of motion peculiar to any 
given body, physical or mental. 

3. The extent, or circuit of that which proceeds, or is given 
off, from any substance, organism, or mind. 

Now, if it be true, that each mineral, in the mineral king- 
dom, and each vegetable, in the vegetable kingdom, and all ani- 
mals in the animal kingdom, and all minds in the world of 
mind, as all worlds in the universe, and all things in each, are 
surrounded by spheres peculiar to each, it will be seen, at once,, 
how important it is, that this doctrine should be fully compre- 
hended, in order to have a correct understanding of human na- 
ture. The following testimonies are among the first that were 
ever uttered on this feature of our subject, and they give, per- 
haps, as correct an idea of it as could be put in the form of 
language : — 

Sympathies and antipathies are nothing else than exhala- 
tions of affections, from minds which affect one another, 
according to similitudes, and excite aversion according to dis- 
similitudes. These, although they are innumerable, and are 
not sensibly perceived by any sense of the body, are yet 
perceived by the sense of the soul, as one ; and according to 
them, all conjunctions and consociations in the spiritual world 
are made.— T. C. R. 365. 

Spiritual spheres encompass all spirits and societies of 
spirits, jioiving forth from the life of the affections and of the 
thoughts thence derived : wherefore if the affections be con- 
trary, collision takes place, whence comes anxiety. — A. C. 
10, 312. 

There is diffused around every one in heaven, and every one 
in hell, a sphere consisting of substances resolved and separated 
from their bodies. 

It was also perceived that a sphere diffuses itself, not only 
from angels and spirits, but also from all and each of the things 
which appear in that world, as froni the trees and from their 
fruits there, from shrubs and from their flowers, from herbs 
and from grasses, yea, from earths and from everything of 
them; from which it was evident that this is universal as well 
in things living as dead, that everything is surrounded by 
Bbmething similar to that which is uithin it, and that this is 



SPHERES. 145 

continually exhaled from it. That it is similar in the natural 
world, is known from the experience of many of the learned ; 
as that a continual stream of effluvia flows forth from a man, 
also from every animal, and likewise from trees, fruits, shrubs, 
flowers, yea, from metals and stones. Thus the natural world 
derives from the spiritual world, and the spiritual world from 
the divine.— D. L. & D. W. 291-293. 

There flows forth, yea, overflows, from every man a 
spiritual sphere, derived from the affections of his love, which 
encompasses him, and infuses itself into the natural sphere 
derived from the body, so that the two spheres are conjoined. 
That a natural sphere is continually flowing forth, not only 
from man, but also from beasts, yea, from trees, fruits, flowers, 
and also from metals, is a thing generally known. The case' 
is the same in the. spiritual world ; but the spheres flowing 
forth from subjects in that world are spiritual, and those which 
emanate from spirits and angels are altogether spiritual, be- 
cause there appertain thereto affections of love, and thence 
perceptions and interior thoughts ; all of sympathy and an- 
tipathy hath hence its rise, and likewise all conjunction and 
disjunction, and according thereto presence and absence in the 
spiritual world, for what is homogeneous or concordant causes 
conjunction and presence, and what is heterogeneous and dis- 
cordant causes disjunction and absence, wherefore those 
spheres cause distances in that world. That those spiritual 
spheres operate in the natural world is also known to some. 
The inclination of conjugal partners one towards the other, is 
from no other origin than this ; such partners are united by 
unanimous and concordant spheres, and disunited by adverse 
and discordant spheres ; for concordant spheres are delightful 
and grateful, whereas discordant spheres are undelightful and 
ungrateful. There is not any part within in man, nor any 
without, which doth not renew itself, and that this renewal is 
effected by solutions and reparations, and that hence is the 
sphere which continually issues forth. — C. L. 171. 

The spiritual sphere appertaining to a man or to a spirit, is 
the exhalation flowing forth from the life of his loves, from 
which it is known at a distance what is his quality ; according 
to spheres, all are conjoined in the other life, even societies 
among themselves ; and are also dissociated, for opposite 
spheres are in collision, and mutually repel each other ; hence 
the spheres of the loves of evil are all in hell, and the spheres 
of the loves of good are all in heaven, that is, they who are in 
those spheres. — A. C. 6206. 

That the truth or the false which are derived from man^s 
loves, encompass him and also flow forth from him, may 
appear from this cdnsideration, that all things which are in the 
7 



146 BOOK OF HUMAN NATUEE. *" 

world, as well animate as inanimate, pour forth from tKemselves 
a sphere, which is sometimes perceivable to the senses at a 
considerable distance, as from animals in the woods, which 
dogs exquisitely smell out, and pursue by the scent from step 
to step ; likewise from vegetables in gardens and forests, 
which emit an odoriferous sphere in every direction ; in like 
manner from the ground and its various minerals ; but the^e 
exhalations are natural exhalations. Similar is the case in the 
spiritual world, where from every spirit and angel flows forth a 
sphere of his love, and of its derivative truth or false, and this 
in every direction ; hence it is that all spirits may be known as 
to their quality, from the spiritual sphere alone which exudes 
from them, and that according to those spheres they have con- 
junction with societies which are in similar love, and thence in 
a similar truth or false. They who are in the love of good 
and thence of truth, are conjoined with the societies of heaven, 
and they who are in the love of evil and thence ' of the false, 
are conjoined with the societies of hell. I can assert that 
there is not even a single thought appertaining to a spirit, and 
also to a man, which does not communicate by that sphere 
with some society ; that this is the case, has not hitherto been 
known to man, but it has been made evident to me from a 
thousand instances in the spiritual world, wherefore also when 
spirits are explored as to their quality, it is traced out whither 
their ■ thoughts extend themselves, whence it is known with 
what societies they are conjoined, and thus their quality is 
ascertained. — A. E. 889.* 

Tlie "Od." 

151. This doctrine of the spheres is as necessary, for fully 
comprehending many of nature's causes, as we have seen the 
doctrine of degrees to be. And how readily it harmonizes 
with the physical experiments of Reichenbach, which have 
given rise to so many mere speculations jn respect to what has 
been called od, it is easy to see.f The truth is, Reichenbach's 
Researches do nothing more nor less than to confirm the 
doctrine of the spheres long since set forth by Swedenborg. 
But, as a use has been attempted to be made of the details in 
Reicbenbach's book, which the facts, themselves, do not by 
any means warrant, it becomes necessary to examine what he 
has demonstrated, with a minuteness which the importance of 
the subject would seem to demand. While the doctrine of 



* Vide, also, A. C. 925, 7454, 10,180. 

t Physico-Physiological Researches on the Dynamics of Magnetism, 
Electrieity, Heat, Light, Chrystallization, and Chemism, &c., by 
Chai'les Von Keichenbaoh. J. S. Eedfield, New York, 1851, 



OD. 147 

spheres is true, and while I adniit the experiments of the 
German chemist as putting this doctrine of the spheres of 
physical bodies beyond all doubt, I must demur, altogether, to 
the inferences which are attempted to be drawn from them. 
These inferences may be briefly stated thus : — 

That this. 0(^, (or whatever it may be called,*) is eliminated 
out of the human system, (without the action of the mind,) 
and is the cause of the following phenomena : — 

1. It addresses itself, as is alleged, to the sense of hear- 
ing, by making loud sounds and beautiful music. 

2. It addresses the sense of feeling; it is said, by taking 
hold of you, striking you, pulling your clothes, and. causing 
you to feel vibrations in physical bodies near by. 

3. It exerts force, we are told, over amorphous bodies, 
without any physical contact, sufficient to suspend a common 
dining table entirely from the floor, and to remove it a distance 
in space of fifty feet. 

4. This " oo'," or "odyle," it is assumed, "independently 
of the human mind,'' and without any conscious volition of any 
human being, darts out of the nervous system, and manifests 
all the attributes of Individuality or Personality. It evinces 
Intelligence, asks and answers questions, — it shows all the 
characteristics of an intelligent human being, of Hope, Love, 
Hatred, Joy, &c. 

Well, now, without stopping to inquire what one might not 
believe who can believe this, [and all this one may believe 
who is more or less ignorant of the doctrine of Degrees,] we 
proceed to exhibit those deductions of the great apostle of 
oddity, which bear upon the question now under notice. His 
*' conclusions" are stated from page 220 to 227, and are as 
follows : — 

1. The od is a mere exhalation, as something eliminated 
from light, heat, chemism, and all physical bodies in the uni- 
verse, and is different from all other substances. 

2. This od addresses itself principally to the senses of 
feeling and sight, in a peculiar class of people whom he calls 
cataleptics or "sensitives." It never addresses the sense 
of hearing at all ! 

3. In respect to causing " sounds," or the movement of 
physical and amorphous bodies, od is wholly inoperative. 
These are his words : — 

"All odic flame may be made to flicker by currents of air; 
be diverted, caused to move, blown about, and S^^ broken up 

* Dr. B. W. Eicliinond calls it " some indefinite somehow !" and 
yet he personifies it, and allows to it " intelligence, power and spite," 
In order to account for what are termed " spiritual manifestations I*' 



148 BOOK OF HUMAN NATUEE. 

hy blowing on it ! Meeting- with solid bodies, it bends around 
them, follows their surfaces, and streams forward on them like 
flames of common fire." 

Here, mark, he does not affirm, that this od moves heavy- 
bodies in space — nothing of the kind ! 

4. Reichenbach gives an enumeration of the different uses 
he had made of the odic laws, but in none of them does he ap- 
proach the phenomena above stated. As, for instance, he ac- 
counts for many results known under the name of Pathetism, 
— the light seen in cases of rapid crystallization, the luminous 
appearances sometimes seen in graveyards, certain effects of 
digestion and respiration, and of many strange antipathies of 
mankind — all of which confirm Swedenborg's doctrine of 
spheres, while no one of his facts or experiments can be quo- 
ted in support of the notions referred to above. And they 
will be further manifest, if we consider the negative charac- 
teristics, as detailed by Reichenbach himself, of this myste- 
rious od : — 

1. It is a mere exhalation, a physical substance, that is 
given out of, or which surrounds all other substances, and is 
in no sense intelligent, instinctive, or living, even ! p. 221. 

2. It is very slow in its motions — so slow that you may 
" almost follow it on a long wire, if you make haste." 
p. 223. 

3. Od does not attract iron nor magnets, nor does it attract 
any other physical body. It is so weak, even, that it may be 
"diverted" by a mere puff" of air! p. 226. 

4. Od can only be transferred from one body to another by 
physical contact ; " a mere approximation suffices for it, 
though with a weaker effect." lb. 

5. Its transference is slow, and " requires several minutes 
for its completion." lb. 

6. The duration of the induced odic condition in bodies after 
complete charging, is generally very brief. lb. 

7. Although this odyle substance possesses polarity liko 
Magnetism, yet, unlike Magnetism, "the odic flames issuing 
from opposite poles, exhibit no tendency to unite with one 
another." lb. 

8. About all the positive action on other bodies produced by 
this od, is in the case of a few " nervous" or "sensitive" 
people! But, then, this influence is not reciprocal, like what 
takes place between two opposite poles of the magnet ; the 
sensitive does not act upon the od at all. 

Such are the negative characteristics of that " undefinable 
something," a mere exhalation which has been almost deified 
within a recent period. And, although, those who, just now 
ire disposed to make so much of it, confess that they do not 



PHILOSOPHY OF SPHERES. 149 

know what it is, nor the laws by which it is governed, yet, 
they speak of it, as if it were a matter easily cognizable by 
each of our external senses, and as fully demonstrated as are 
the laws of gravitation. However I do not perceive that any 
thing is likely to be gained for science by this process of rea-, 
soning. Nor should it be forgotten, that after all that has up 
to the present, been said, or proved in respect to this one, it 
has not yet been demonstrated to be any thing eliminated from 
physical bodies as would at first seem to appear. It may be, 
as far as we yet know, the change or the altered appearance 
of the atmosphere which comes in immediate contact with 
the bodies which are said to give it off; and if so, it cannot be 
a force in the sense many have imagined. Hence in reason- 
ing upon it with the haste some seem to have done, they have 
taken numerous assumptions for granted which have never 
been proved, and which perhaps never can be. Nor is this 
all ; we have been gravely told by those who wish to disprove 
a certain spiritual theory, that if it be not " od," it is " some- 
thing'' else ! What, they cannot say. They evidently are hard 
pushed, and do not know. So, if we none of us know what it 
is, it may be spirits out of the human body after all. 

Pliilo§opliy of Spheres. 

152. We may now proceed to consider the philosophy of 
these facts, and the doctrine of spheres. 

1. The spheres of all physical bodies have respect to time 
and space. Now, contemplate our sun as the centre, and we 
can conceive in what sense all the other planets come within 
his sphere. 

1. — All the planetary orbits are regular ellipses, in the lower 
focus of which the sun is placed, and around which they each 
revolve with mathematical exactness. Indeed, we are told 
that hurricanes are governed by mathematical motions ; for 
they have a regular axis of motion, which axis is itself pro- 
gressive, like a planet in its orbit, tracing an elliptical or para- 
bolic curve. They are whirlwinds, it has been truly said, on 
a large scale. 

2. — The time occupied by any planet, in describing any 
given arcs of its orbit, are always as the areas of sectors, 
formed by straight lines drawn from the beginning and end of 
the arcs, to the sun as a centre. 

3. — The squares of the period of the planets' revolution vary, 
as the cubes of their distance from the sun.* 

This doctrine, then, shows how it is, and to what extent, 



Kepler. 



150 BOOK OF HUMAN NATURE. 

or, in what instances one physical body exerts an influence 
over another. 

The sun is 1,300,000 times larger than our globe, and dis- 
tant from the earth 94,500,000 miles. 

And Dr. Wallaston seemed to think, that if the sun could 
be removed one hundred and fifty thousand times its present 
distance, it would appear like a star of the first magnitude ; 
but it has since been proved, by Bessal and other astronomers, 
that the nearest stars must be more than six hundred thousand 
times farther off than the sun. To appear, therefore, as they 
do, they must be suns, whose superficial magnitude is at least 
thirty-six times that of ours, rolled into one equal to it. What 
an insignificant speck is the little group of worlds that nestle 
under the wing of our diminutive sun ! 

2. The human form : As we have seen, od acts directly on 
od, and nothing else. Physical bodies act on physical bodies, 
and mind acts on mind. We see the external with our exter- 
nal eyes ; we hear the external with our external ears. But, 
we see the internal only with our mental eyes, and become 
conscious of the internal or mental world, only in the exercise 
of our internal or mental senses. 

Hence, we see why it is that the mind cannot act on, or 
control physical bodies, independently of all physical contact ; 
and how utterly unsatisfactory it is to be told, that the mind, or 
the nervous system may and does, " act unconsciously upon 
physical bodies, at a distance and without any contact." This 
is mere assumption, and adopted, for the sake of avoiding what 
is supposed to be a greater one, involved in the idea of " spiri- 
tual manifestation," so called. Thus, it happens, when mortals 
imagine they have solved an inexplicable mystery, when 
they have merely adopted a palpable absurdit}'^ in its stead. 

3. Spiritual. Thus it becomes manifest, how it is, that the 
mental sphere is extended far beyond the odyle sphere of the 
external body ; and, hence how it is that the spiritual sphere, 
may comprehend what could not be affirmed of a mere physical 
body. I'he mind, or spirit must have knowledge, to the extent 
of its sphere, as really as that a physical body must occupy a 
certain extent of space, and tends to the centre of the sphere 
in which it revolves with a mathematical amount of force. 
And thus we see, that in a given sphere one physical body 
cannot act upon another, without superior force, to move 
them ; one mind cannot act on another, without a previously 
established relation between them, and, least of all, can the od. 
act out of, or beyond its sphere, 

4. If, as Swedenborg tells us, the sphere of a body is an 
exhalation thrown oif from it, which makes manifest the 
quality and character of the body from which it is eliminated, 



SPHERES. 151 

then it must follow that there is an internal, innermost prin- 
ciple which acts in sending it off. Hence, in living- bodies, 
and in the hunlati mind, this innermost principle is to be 
searched for, as the remote cause in producing the outward 
sphere, and the results which follow from certain relations 
when established between two different minds. 

5. When contemplating, therefore, this od or the exhala- 
tions which all external bodies are' known to throw out, and 
with which they are surrounded, not excepting heat and light, 
we should be careful how we speak of it as an active principle. 
It would seem to be rather the medium through which another 
principle, the human spirit, which is active, exercises its pecu- 
liar senses of seeing, feeling and hearing. The od is far more 
passive than active, nor is it by any means plain, that we 
should ever speak of it as a positive, active principle at all. 
It may. sometimes, as in the case of Reichenbach's " sensi- 
tives," occasion certain nervous changes, and so iiideed would 
a mere spontaneous thought or an idea which might arise in 
the mind of one of those " sensitives." But, should we, on 
this account, accustom ourselves to speak of a mere thought 
as an active principle or agent, with force enough to move a 
heavy physical body without contact ? 

Icliasyaicrasy. 

153. If we now consider this od as the external atmosphere 
which is exhaled from the physical body, we may imagine it 
as that which the mind tastes, when persons find them- 
selves subjected to various singular states of feeling which do 
not depend upon their judgment at all. 

There is an atmosphere surrounding every individual, and 
which you perceive at once when you approach him. On the 
first sight you feel instinctively repelled, and you do not find 
it possible to feel pleased with being near to him, or delight in 
his company. But with another person you are delighted at 
once. You feel an attachment to him, for which you can ren- 
der no reason at all, no more than you could for the antipathy 
you felt for the other. All our feehngs of love, friendship, 
and dislike, are perceived through this peculiarity of our na- 
ture. It is a law of nature to work by opposite forces. Two 
poles of the same denomination repel and expand ; two oppo- 
site poles contract and attract. Two contiguous keys on the 
piano harmonize less than two divided by a third. The at- 
traction grows out of the associations between the two, when 
one possesses positively what is possessed by the other nega- 
tively. So nature has provided the two sexes, for the propa- 
gation of the different species of living bodies ; and it will be 



152 BOOK OF HUMAN NATURE. 

found that parents of nearly the same temperament have the 
least issue, and their offspring, if they have any, are general] j) 
short-lived. - ■ * 

Syanpatlietic Imitation. 

154. It is in these Degrees in which the different elements 
composing the human body are balanced, that those laws orig- 
inate by which we are to account for the natural spheres, the 
instinctive sympathies and antipathies of human nature. We 
often find persons whose nervous systems will be instantly af- 
fected, and made to laugh or weep, by a mere suggestion or 
thought of any given result. A person who has often taken 
nauseating medicine, will be nauseated by the thought of re- 
ceiving it again ; and a thought has often proved a powerful 
emetic ; and not only has a thought proved an emetic, but the 
sight of a distasteful cathartic has for some time operated the 
same as when that medicine is actually received into the sto- 
mach, as is testified by many experienced physicians. 

Men, if they see but another man tremble, giddy, or sick of 
some fearful disease, their apprehension and fear are so strong 
in this kind, that they will have such a disease. Or if by some 
soothsayer, wise man, fortune-teller, or physician, they be 
told they shall have such a disease, they will so seriously ap- 
prehend it, that they will instantly labor of it — a thing familiar 
in China, (saith Riccius, the Jesuit.) If it be told them that 
they shall be sick on such a day, when that day comes they 
will surely be sick, and will be so terribly afflicted that some- 
times they will die upon it.* 

Instinctive Sympathy. 

155. The celebrated Dr. Good refers to this idiosyncrasy, 
but he did not know how to account for it. He remarks : 

"We occasionally meet among mankind, with a sort of 
sensation altogether wonderful and inexplicable. There are 
some persons so peculiarly affected by the presence of a par- 
ticular object that is neither seen, tasted, heard, smelt, or 
touched, as not only to be conscious of its presence, but to be 
in agony till it is removed. The vicinity of a cat not unfre- 
quently produces such an effect, and I have been a witness to 
the most decisive proofs of this in several instances." 

AntipatBiic§. 

156. I knew a person who was so much affected with the 
smell of onions, as to be unable to remain in the house v.'here 
they were ; and it is said, Henry the Third, of France, could 

* Burton Anat. Mel. vol. 1, p. 221. 



PEOPHETIC DKEAMS. 153 

not endure the presence of a cat. Lord Chancellor Bacon fell 
down in a fit whenever there was an eclipse of the moon ; the 
philosopher Boyle could not endure the sound of water drawn 
from a cock. Erasmus trembled at. the smell or sight offish ; 
Marshal d'Albert fainted at the sight of a sucking- pig ; La 
Mollie la Voyer could not endure the sound of music ; and 
Shakespeare speaks of some person in his day who could not 
endure the sound of the bagpipe. The celebrated astronomer, 
Brahe, was totally paralyzed in his limbs at the sight of a live 
hare ; and we have known intelligent persons who could not 
endure the sight of a rat. Some persons are peculiarly affect- 
ed on touching certain kinds of metals, and others are affected 
in the same way if they touch them only in their imagination. 
An intelligent lady of my acquaintance had such an anti- 
pathy to spiders, that for eight years she retained the sense 
of disgust and horror vi^hich it gave her, on finding one upon 
her person. 

IntuitlTe Kno^vledge. 

157. The different degrees in which each of the primitive 
faculties are developed, constitute and determine the exten- 
sion, the height and depth ; or, the strength of those faculties 
denominated sagacity, penetration, firmness, patience, self- 
esteem, ambition, industry, invention, poetry, music, painting, 
judgment, comprehension, intuition, &c. &c. 

How Is It ? 

158. But it is asked, how the mind can acquire knowledge, 
in an abnormal condition, at all ? How a somnambulist can 
perceive, or know, in a state of trance 1 The answer is at 
hand : — they know, in the use of the same thinking, knowing 
faculties, that they use, through the external senses when in 
the normal state. How does the mind know any thing 1 How 
does the eye know what to do with the light ? How does the 
ear know what to do with sound? Or, when sound breaks 
upon the auditory nerves, how does the mind know what it 
means? How does the infant know how to take its food, — 
how to inhale the air which excites its lungs to action ? (39, 
40.) How did Zerah Colburn know how to solve those ab- 
struse mathematical problems 1 Is there no such thing as in- 
tuition ? And, what is it? 

'When is if Hevcloped? 

159. If there be such a power as A'not^5, without observation 
and without experience, it is easy to see why it should be more 
active, when the external senses are suspended. When all the 



154 BOOK OF HUMAN NATURE. 

external senses are inactive, the nutritive forces are concen- 
trated, in tlie excitement of the faculty of wisdom, and at such 
times the faculty thus excited may, and does feel, see and hear 
without the external organs, (64.) Wisdom is light, know^- 
ledge, and for this faculty to be in that state or degree of de- 
velopment, is for it to know and comprehend all within the 
degree or sphere of its manifestations. (92.) 

Intuition. 

160. That certain persons have an intuition of Mathematics 
and Music, without the labor of study, is certain. This is 
Clairvoyance. However, it is not so understood by persons 
who are not familiar with the degrees in which the inherent 
faculties of the human mind have been or may be developed. 
There are three things to be considered, connected with this 
subject. 

To be considered. 

161. 1. That persons whose minds were imperfectly developed 
have assumed a great deal more than was either true, or that 
could be proved in specific cases of alleged intuitive know- 
ledge. Ar.d hence, when the proof has been demanded, it 
could not be given, and doubt and skepticism have been the 
naturul results. 

2. Reports have been made of extraordinary cases, which 
could not be demonstrated. I have known a number of per- 
sons, who at times manifested intuition of things past, present 
and future ; but it would be difficult for me to convince others, 
perhaps, that I may not have been more or less deceived in 
some way, because I could not present the same amount of 
evidence to their minds ; and besides, what would satisfy one 
person, under some circumstances, would not be sufficient to 
satisfy another under different circumstances. 

3. It is admitted that in such cases as those of Zerah Col- 
burn, Young, Safford, Ole Bull, and others, that an intuitive 
independent faculty of knowing does obviously exist. And, 
now, no perfectly candid person will or can deny, but that if 
the human mind is ever developed in this life, so as to have 
intuition of mathematics, or music, or language, it may be so 
far developed in other respects as to have a perfect compre- 
hension of other things. Why not all that comes within the 
range of the degree of development ? (92.) Indeed we find it 
is precisely so in relation to every individual mind, for each 
mind actually does know, and comprehend, just in proportion 
to its sphere and the degree of its development. This no one 
can deny. Intuition, therefore, ought not to be denied as 



PROPHETIC DREAMS. 155 

impossible, by any mind, because if the degree of the develop- 
ment be perfect, the knowledge must be perfect in that de- 
gree. 

Case§ of iBitiiition. 

162. There are many cases upon record of persons who 
have possessed intuitive sagacity and penetration, and which 
have never been doubted or denied. Swedenborg evinced 
these powers in numerous instances, and many other remark- 
able cases of its development have long been before the world. 
As an instance, take the case of the celebrated Zschokke. In 
his autobiography he gives the following account of what he 
calls his " inward sight," though it seems he himself did not 
know what to make of it, any more than Zerah Colburn did 
of his remarkable mathematical powers. 

" I am," he remarks, " almost afraid to speak of this, not 
because I am afraid to be thought superstitious, but that I may 
thereby strengthen such feelings in others. And yet it may 
be an addition to our stock of soul-experiences, and therefore 
I will confess ! It has happened to me sometimes, on my first 
meeting with strangers, as I listened silently to their discourse, 
that their former life, with many trifling circumstances there- 
with connected, or frequently some particular scene in that 
life, has passed quite involuntarily, and as it were dream-like, 
yet perfectly distinct before me. During this time I usually 
feel so entirely absorbed in the contemplation of the stranger 
life, that atlast I no longer see clearly the face of the unknown, 
wherein I undesignedly read, nor distinctly hear the voices of 
the speakers, which before served in some measure as a com- 
mentary to the text of their features. For a long time I held 
such visions as delusions of the fancy, and more so as they 
showed me even the dress and motions of the actors, rooms, 
furniture, and other accessories. By way of jest, I once, in a 
familiar family circle at Kirchberg, related the secret history 
of a seamstress who had just left the room and the house. I 
had never seen her before in my life ; people were astonished, 
and laughed, but were not to be persuaded that I did not pre- 
viously know the relations of which I spoke ; for what 1 had 
uttered was the literal truth. I, on my part, was no less 
astonished that my dream-pictures were confirmed by the 
reality. I became more attentive to the subject, and, when 
propriety admitted it, I would relate to those whose life thus 
passed before me the subject of my vision, that I might thereby 
obtain confirmation or refutation of it. It was invariably 
ratified, not without consternation on their part.* I myself 

* " What demon inspires you ? Miist I again believe in posses- 
»ionl" exclaimed the Spiritual Johan von Eigan, when, in the first 



156 BOOK OF HUMAN NATURE. 

had less confidence than any one in this mental jugglery. So 
often as I revealed my visionary gifts to any new person, I regu- 
larly expected to hear the answer — ' It was not so.' Tielt a 
secret shudder when my auditors replied that it was true, or 
when their astonishment betrayed my accuracy before they 
spoke. Instead of many, I will mention one example, which 
pre-eminently astounded me : One fair day, in the city of 
Waldshut, I entered an inn (the Vine) in company with two 
young student-foresters ; we were tired with rambling through 
the woods. We supped with a numerous society at the table 
d'hote where the guests were making very merry with the 
peculiarities and eccentricities of the Swiss, with Mesmer's 
magnetism, Lavater's physiognomy, &c. One of my com- 
panions, vi/hose national pride was wounded by their mockery, 
begged me to make some reply, particularly to a handsome 
young man who sat opposite us, and v/ho had allowed himself ex- 
traordinary license. This man's former life was at that moment 
presented to my mind. I turned to him, and asked whether he 
would answer me candidly, if I related to him some of the most 
secret passages of his life, I knowing as little of him personally 
as he did of me"? That would be going a little further, I 
thought, than Lavater did with his physiognomy. He pro- 
mised, if I were correct in my information, to admit it franldy, 
I then related what my vision had shown me, and the whole 
company were made acquainted with the private history of the 
young merchant : his school years, his youthful errors, with a 
fault committed in reference to the strong box of his principal. 
I described to him the uninhabited room, with whitened walls, 
where to the right of the brovvn door, on a table stood a black 
money box, &c. &c. A dead silence prevailed during the 
whole narration, which I alone occasionally interrupted, by in- 
quiring whether I spoke the truth. The startled young man 
confirmed every particular, and even, what I had scarcely ex- 
pected, the last mentioned. Touched by his candor, I shook 
hands with him over the table, and said no more. He asked 
my name, which I gave him, and we remained together talking 
till past midnight. He is probably still living !" 

Any explanation of this phenomenon, by means of the known 
laws of the human mind, would, in the present confined state 
of our knowledge,' assuredly fail. We therefore simply give 
the extraordinary fact as we find it, in the words of the nar- 
rator, leaving the puzzle to be speculated on by our readers. 



hour of our acquaintance, I related his past life to him, with the avowed 
object of learning whether or no I deceived myself. We speculated 
long on the enigma, but even liia penetration could not solve it. 



iNTUiTiojr. 157 

Zschokke adds, that he had met with others who possessed a 
similar power.'^ 

AII>fiaormal Cases Stated. 

163. I have known a few persons in whom this power was 
developed during mental derangement. Indeed, it is an in- 
teresting fact, which seems to have escaped the 'notice of pre- 
vious writers upon this suhject, that insanity does, sometimes, 
develop this faculty, or in such cases it is one of the consti- 
tuent conditions or incidental effects of that abnormal excite- 
ment of portions of the nervous system, characteristic of in- 
sanity. The following is one of numerous cases of this 
kind : — 

In the year 1841-2, my dear, respected father, was fre- 
quently attacked with mental derangement, originating, prin- 
cipally, I believe, from the knowledge of my troubles occasioned 
by the death of my husband. The various scenes of mental 
delusion I was called to witness are not uncommon to gentle- 
men of your profession. I therefore pass them over, simply 
to relate his strange knowledge of events. 

When first attacked he did not recognize me. My atten- 
tion was first excited by the following incident. So soon as 
the meat for dinner had been brought from the butcher's, of 
which he could have no possible knowledge, being confined to 
his bed and out of the reach of either seeing or hearing, (point- 
ing to the floor, underneath which was the room it was in) he 
exclaimed — "What a nice rump-steak — I will have some!"' 
Struck with his manner, and knowing it was not our intended 
dinner, I replied, '" No, father, there is no rump-steak, we are 
to have mutton chops." He went into a great passion, de- 
clared that there was rump-steak, that he could see it, and de- 
scribed the dish. I went down stairs, and to my utter aston- 
ishment beheld it as he related ! 

In the morning without making known my intention, I took 
a basket and went into the garden to cut some cabbages and 
gather strawberries. The garden being at the side of the 
house where there was no window to look into it, it was im- 
possible for him to see me by ordinary vision. However, he 
turned to my sister, saying — " That basket into which Betsey 
is putting the cabbages and strawberries had better be moved 
out of the sun, or the fruit wjU be spoiled. Tell her she is 
not gathering strawberries from the best bed, she had better 
go to the other !" When I was told of it I was completely 
puzzled. 

Durmg the time of my visit, wherever I V4^ent, whatever I 

* Chamber^' Journal, 



158 BOOK OF HUMAN NATURE. 

did or thought of, was open to his view. My sister after- 
wards informed me that his medical attendant had lent her 
some books, and one morning my father said to her — " The 
Dr. sends his compliments and will be obliged for the books." 
Supposing some message had been sent, my sister replied, 
"very well." In the course of a short time after, the Dr.'s 
boy arrived, with his " master's respects," and request for the 
books ! On inquiry, she found that no previous message had 
been sent nor inquiry made for them. The distance from us 
to the Dr.'s was three quarters of a mile. 

At another time he said to my sister — " There is a hand- 
some young man and an old woman coming by the coach this 
afternoon to see me." And, sure enough, to our surprise, 
when the coach arrived, it brought my brother, and a nurse 
for my father ! No one had any previous knowledge of my 
brother's coming or of his bringing a nurse with him. .The 
distance from which they came was eleven miles. I wish to 
call your attention to the circumstance, that he did not recog- 
nize the parties when they arrived, though both had been well 
known to him ! When in his senses, he knew nothing of 
what had transpired, and had not even a recollection of my 
coming' to see him! He wasted away to a skeleton, and died 
mid-summer, 1842, in the 64th year of his age. He never, 
till the time stated, had any mental derangement, though he 
certainly was for years very nervous. He was a talented and 
very active man ; a kind and affectionate father." 

And this same writer goes on to describe the cases of her 
two sisters, both of whom had intuition of distant things with- 
out the use of the external senses, at a time when they were 
both sick, and one of them in a state of mental derangement ! 
One of them told the exact time by a watch, and the other, 
who was deranged, found articles that had been hid in the 
cellar, without the knowledge of any one. 

Now, from such cases, we learn that the intuitive faculty 
does not always depend upon the healthy state of the entire 
system. Indeed, a state of delusion in one organ may tend to 
excite this power in another ; or, as we often find in cases 
of inflammation of the eyes, they become abnormally sensitive 
to light, and in diseases of the auditory nerves they become 
painfully sensitive to sound. A person, therefore, may have 
intuitive knowledge of one thing, and, at the same time, be 
ignorant of all else besides ; and not only so, one may have 
intuitive knowledge of one or more subjects while in a state 
of temporary or chronic insanity ! 



INTUITION. 159 



IVhat does not Follow. 

164. Hence it does not follow, that because a person has 
intuitive knowledge of one particular thing, or one class of 
subjects, that he will, necessarily, know every thing of every 
other subject. It more frequently happens, that where one 
faculty is developed in 'a very extraordinary degree, another 
of the faculties will be found deficient in a corresponding 
ratio.* Of late, it has become quite common for uninformed 
persons to put forth the most extravagant assumptions with 
regard to this power, and hence they attempt to carry on a 
business of examining and prescribing for diseases by it, when 
neither of the parties know enough to tell whether a person 
have intuitive knowledge or not. And where persons, con- 
nected with the profession of medicine, pretend to such things 
in the manner some have done, it is no marvel that the minds 
of intelligent people are set against the subject, as if the science 
itself were really nothing but imposture, and fit only to be 
pressed into the service of empiricism, to supply the place of 
knowledge in the medical profession. 

The fact that cures sometimes follow such prescriptions, 
proves nothing in favor of these assumptions, as these cures 
are to be accounted for by the laws of the vis medicatrix natures, 
already referred to. In many cases almost any prescription 
would produce a favorable result.f I do not object to the 
good which any one, learned or ignorant, rich or poor, may do 
by appropriate means. My object in these remarks is to give 
correct views of human nature, so that all those conditions, 
causes, and effects, which combine to make the phenomena of 
the body or mind, disease or health, ignorance or wisdom, 



* I once heard the celebrated George Combe, one of the greatest 
mental philosophers of the age, declare that he himself was almost 
idotic in his organs of number. It takes a philosopTier to find out what 
his own deficiencies are. 

t A German physician gave me the following facts : His patient 
came to him one day in great distress. The Dr. wrote a reciepc and 
handed it to him, saying, " Here, take that." A few days after, the 
patient returned to inform the Dr. that " the piece of paper which he 
gave him had a very good effect, though he found it somewhat hard 
to swallow it." Were the " pieces of paper" swallowed by the sick, 
instead of the nauseous drugs prescribed for them, it is quite pro- 
bable that the results would be fur better, in some cases, at least. JSTor 
will the intelligent practitioner object to what is here suggested, who 
makes the siguificent " K" with his prescriptions, as he knows that 
prefix is a synibol of the god or planet under whose reign the ingre- 
dients were supposed to be collected ; so that if he do "not accede to 
what I have here said of Pathetism, he may, nevertheless, be a wor- 
shipper of Jupiter, and a firm patron of Astrology ! 



160 BOOK OF HUMAN NATUKE. 

misery or felicity, may each be viewed in their proper light, 
and made to hold that relation to one another in our judgment 
of them, which they do in fact, and in the world of which each 
forms a part. This is pure, unmixed truth, which it should be 
the highest ambition of each one duly to appreciate, and in the 
use of all suitable means to pursue, under the conviction that 
no sacrifices are too great, no labor-s too severe, which may 
finally be crowned with a knowledge of the Truth. 

Prevision. 

165. As we have seen, one of the faculties developed by the 
element of wisdom is prevision, or that organ by which the 
mind comprehends existing laws, or associations, by which 
future results will be evolved. Prevision, therefore, is a 
necessary result, from the perfect development of penetration, 
reason, and sagacity. It was in the exercise of these faculties, 
that Tacitus foresaw the calamities which desolated Europe, on 
the fall of the Roman Empire, and predicted them in a work 
written some five hundred years before they came to pass. 
Cicero appeals to Atticus, in confirmation of his having posses- 
sed the faculty which had always enabled him to judge of the 
affairs of the republic as a good diviner ; and affirming, that its 
overthrow had taken place, precisely as he had foreseen, 
fourteen years before.* Thucidydes attributes this faculty to 
Themistocles, for he says : " By a species of sagacity peculiar- 
ly his own, for which he was in no degree indebted to early 
education or after study, he was supereminently happy in 
forming a prompt judgment in matters that admitted but little 
time for deliberation ; at the same time that he far surpassed all 
his deductions' of the future from the past.''''\ 

Aristotle wrote upon divination, and he reveals the process 
by which one of the professors of this art was enabled to arrive 
at his conclusions. The future being always very obscure, he 
said nothing about it, except what he could "infer from the 
present, and the past, which were open to the view of all.| 
Solon, at Athens, contemplating on the port and citadel of 
Munychia, exclaimed, " How blind is man to futurity ! Could 
the Athenians foresee what mischief they will do, they would 
even eat it with th^ir own teeth to get rid of it." More than 
two hundred years afterwards, that prediction was verified. Sir 
Walter Raleigh foresaw the consequences of the division 
which occurred in the established church of England about 
1530, and described them distinctly long before they occurred. 
Bishop Williams, in the time of Charles the First, foresaw and 

* Ep. ad. Att. lib. 10. ch. 4. f Demonologia, p. 128. 
X Arist. Khet. lib. 7, c. 5. 



I 



PREVISION, 161 

predicted the final success of the Puritanic party, and when 
that success was scarcely believed by any one besides himself, 
he abandoned the government and sided with the obscure 
party.* 

It was this faculty that led Dudgoll to travel over England, 
taking draughts of its ancient monuments, as if, by intuition, he 
anticipated their destruction in 1641. Lord Falkland foresaw 
and predicted the character and course of Cromwell ; " this 
coarse, unpromising man," said his lordship, pointing to Crom- 
well, " will be the first person in the kingdom if the nation 
comes to blows." The fall of Bonaparte was foreseen and pre- 
dicted, when that remarkable personage was in the zenith of his 
glory. "• His eagerness," said the Marquis of Wellesley, " is 
so inordinate, his jealousy of independence so fierce, his keen- 
ness of appetite so feverish in all that touches his ambition, even 
in the most trifling things, that he must plunge into dreadful 
difficulties." Dr. Hartly predicted the fall of the existing gov • 
ernment and hierarchies.! Knox, the celebrated reformer, pos- 
sessed this faculty in a remarkable degree. It is said, that 
when condemned to a galley in Rochelle, he predicted his 
preaching at St. Giles in Edinburgh, which actually occurred 
three years afterwards. He also predicted the death of 
Thomas Maitland, and Kirkaldy of Grange, and warned 
Regent Murray not to proceed to Linlithgow, where he was 
assassinated. 

It was doubtless in the exercise of the same faculties, that 
president Madison wrote and preserved those papers, giving 
information about the constitution of our government, which he 
foresaw would be so valuable to succeeding generations ; and 
the same process of reasoning led a contemporary artist to 
transfer upon canvas the features of Washington and his 
lady, besides others whose names are immortalized with the 
times in which they lived. Volumes might be filled with 
details showing the development of this faculty, in every 
age of the world, but the foregoing are sufficient for our pre- 
sent purpose. 

Prophetic I>i*eain§. 

166. Sometimes the organs of Prevision become very active 
in sleep, and then we have such results as the following : — 

The murder of Mr. Adams, in New York, some years since, 
by J. C. Colt, was anticipated by the wife of the former, 
before it took place. Two days before her husband's dis- 
appearance, she dreamed, twice, that he was murdered, and 



♦ Eushworth, Vol. 1. p. 420. t Obs. on Man, 1749. 



162 BOOK OF HUMAN NATURE. 

that she saw his body cut into pieces and packed in a box. 
The dreams gave her great concern, from their vividness ; and 
she went once to relate them to her mother, but did not, from 
the apprehension of being laughed at.* 

In the night of the 11th of May, 1812, Mr. Williams, of 
Scorrier House, near Redruth, in Cornwall, awoke his wife, and 
exceedingly agitated, told her, that he had dreamed that he 
was in the lobby of the House of Commons, and saw a man 
shoot with a pistol, a gentleman who had just entered the lobby, 
who was said to be the chancellor ; to which Mrs. Williams 
naturally replied that it was only a dream, and recommended 
him to be composed, and go to sleep as soon as he could. He 
did so, and shortly after again awoke her, and said that he had 
the second time had the same dream ; whereupon she observ- 
ed, he had been so much agitated with his former dream, that 
she supposed it had dwelt on his mind, and begged of him to 
try to compose himself, and go to sleep, which he did. A 
third time the vision was repeated ; on which, notwithstanding 
her entreaties that he would be quiet, and endeavor to forget it, 
he arose, being then between one and two o'clock, and dressed 
himself. At breakfast, the dreams were the sole subject of 
conversation ; and in the forenoon Mr. Williams went to Fal- 
mouth, where he related the particulars of them to all of his 
acquaintance that he met. On the following day, Mr. Tucker 
of Trematon Castle, accompanied by his wife, a daughter of 
Mr. Williams, went to Scorrier House about dusk. 

Immediately after the first salutations, on their entering the 
parlor, where were Mr., Mrs., and Miss Williams, Mr. Wil- 
liams began to relate to Mr. Tucker the circumstances of 
his dream ; and Mrs. Williams observed to her daughter, Mrs. 
Tucker, laughingly, that her father could not even suffer 
Mr. Tucker to be seated, before he told him of his nocturnal 
visitation ; on the statement of which, Mr. Tucker observed, 
that it would do very well for a dream to have the chancellor 
in the lobby of the House of Commons, but that he would not 
be found there in reality ; and Mr, Tucker then asked what 
sort of a man he appeared to be, when Mr. Williams minutely 
described him ; to which Mr. Tucker replied : Your descrip- 
tion is not at all that of the chancellor, but it is certainly 
very exactly that of Mr. Perceval, the chancellor of the ex- 
chequer ; and although he has been to me the greatest enemy 
I ever met with through life, for a supposed cause, which had 
no foundation in truth, (or words to that effect,) I should be 
exceedingly sorry indeed to hear of his being assassinated, or 



* N. Y. Commercial Advertiser of Oct. 11, 1841. 



PREVISION. 163 

of an injury of the kind happening to him. Mr. Tucker then 
inquired of Mr. Williams if he had never seen Mr. Perceval, 
and was told that he had never seen him, nor had ever even 
written to him, either on public or private business ; in short, 
that he never had any thing to do with him, nor had he ever 
been in the lobby of the House of Commons in his life. 
Wliilst Mr. Williams and Mr. Tucker were still standing they 
heard a horse gallop to the door of the house, and immediately 
after Mr. Michael Williams, of Treviner, (son of Mr. Wil- 
liams of Scorrier) entered the room, and said that he had gal- 
loped out from Truro — from which Scorrier is distant seven 
miles — having seen a gentleman there who had come by that 
evening's mail from London, who said that he had seen in the 
lobby of the House of Commons on the evening of the 11th, 
when a man called Bellingham had shot Mr. Perceval ; and 
that as it might occasion some great ministerial changes, and 
might affect Mr. Tucker's political friends, he had come out 
as fast as he could to make him acquainted with it, having 
heard at Truro that he had passed through that place on his 
way to Scorrier. After the astonishment which this intelli- 
gence had created had a little subsided, Mr. Williams described 
more particularly the appearance and dress of the man that he 
saw in his dream fire the pistol, as he had before done of Mr. 
Perceval. About six weeks after, Mr. Williams having busi- 
ness in town, went, accompanied by a friend, to the House of 
Commons, w-here, as has been already observed, he had nev- 
er before been. Immediately that he came to the steps at the 
entrance of the lobby, he said, "This place is as distinctly 
within my recollection, in my dream, as any room in my 
house ;" and he made the same observation when he entered 
the lobby. He then pointed out the exact spot where Bel- 
lingham stood when he fired, and which Mr. Perceval had 
reached when he was struck with the ball, and where and how 
he fell. The dress, both of Mr. Perceval and Bellingham, 
agreed with the descriptions given by Mr. Williams, even to 
the most minute particular. 

The Times states, that Mr. Williams was then alive, and 
the witnesses, to whom he made known the particulars of his 
dream, were also living ; and that the editor had received 
the statement from a correspondent of unquestionable vera- 
city. 

Singular Case off Tivo Sisters. 

167. The following case is quoted by the same author, from 
Dr. Abercrombie, who states " that its accuracy may be re- 
lied on in all its particulars." 

Two sisters had been for some days attending their brother, 



164 BOOK OF HUMAN NATURE." 

who was suffering from a common sore-throat, severe and pro- 
tracted, but not considered dangerous. At this time one of the 
sisters had obtained the loan of a watch from a friend, her own 
being out of repair. As this watch was a kind of heirloom in the 
family of the lady from whom it had been borrowed, particular 
caution was given Jest it should meet with some injury. Both 
of the sisters slept in a room adjoining that of the brother's — 
and one night the elder awoke the younger in extreme alarm, 
and told her that she had dreamed that " Mary's watch had 
stopped," and that when she had told her of it, she had re- 
plied — " Much worse than that had happened, for Charles's 
breath had stopped also." To quiet her agitation, the young- 
er immediately arose, proceeded to her brother's room, found 
him asleep, and the watch which had been carefully put away 
itt a drawer, going correctly. The following night the same 
dream occurred, accompanied by the same agitation, and quiet- 
ed in the same manner — the brother being sound asleep, and 
the watch going. In the morning, after breakfast, one of 
these ladies having occasion to write a note, proceeded to her 
desk, while the other sat with her brother in the adjoining 
room. Having written and folded the note, she was proceed- 
ing to take out the watch which was now in the desk,, to use 
one of the seals appended to it, when she was astonished to 
find it had stopped, and at the same instant a scream from her 
sister hurried her to the bed-side of her brother, who, to her 
grief, had just breathed his last. The disease was considered 
to be progressing favorably, when he was seized with a sud- 
den spasm, and died of suffocation. The coincidence between 
the stoppage of the watch and the death of the brother, is the 
most perplexing circumstance of the case, since the mere 
stoppage of the watch, or the death of the brother, might have 
been explained on very rational principles ; or had the watch 
stopped before or after the death of the brother, it might have 
been easily supposed to have been forgotten to be vvound up ; 
or it may have suffered some injury from the hurry and trepi- 
dation incidental to anguish and bereavement, -but as the case 
is related, it is certainly a most extraordinary, surprising, and 
mysterious incident. 

Remarkable Case of TIioBiia§ \^otteii. 

168. In the Life of Sir Henry Wotten, by Isaac Walton, 
there is a dream related of Sir Henry's father, Thomas Wot- 
ten. A little before his death, he dreamed that the University 
of Oxford was robbed by his townsmen and poor scholars, five 
in number ; and being that day to write to his son Henry, at 
Oxford, he thought it worth so much pains as by a postscript 
to his letter to make a slight inquiry of it. The letter waa 



CLAIRVOYANCE. 165 

written from Kent, and came into his son's hands the very 
morning after the night on which the robbery was committed ; 
for the dream was true, and the circumstances, though not in 
the exact time — and b}'' it such light was given to this work 
of darkness, that the five guilty persons were presently dis- 
covered and apprehended. Walton also says, "that Thomas 
Wotten, and his uncle Nicholas Wotten, who was Dean of 
Canterbury, both foresaw and foretold the day of their 
deaths." 

Swedenborg, it is said, foretold the time of his own death, 
and expired at the very time he himself had predicted. 

Prophetic Dreams have occasionally occurred from the ear- 
liest ages of the world ; and some of the most remarkable in- 
stances of which may be found recorded in the Bible.* 

Clairvoyance. 

169. In the above account of intuition may be seen, also, 
what I think will eventaally be admitted as the most satisfac- 
tory solution of what has been denominated clairvoyance. 
That such a power exists, and is sometimes, (though very 
rarely) manifested in cataleptic or somnambulic persons, is 
certain ; but in saying this much, I must add, that it is not 
so common as many have supposed, who make a business of 
attempting to call it into action, from one to a dozen times a 
day, for diagnostic or therapeutical purposes. The power, in 
this way, is abused and exhausted. The state of the nervous 
system, in which it is exhibited in such cases, is altogether 
unlike what I have above described ; it is highly abnormal, 
and hence it is plain that its repetition for the purpose of tax- 
ing and working this faculty, must, in the nature of things, be 
attended with injury, because when one faculty is worked with- 
out regard to its degree of development, in comparison with 
the other corresponding faculties, its power is in this way soon 
destroyed. 

Degrees of Clairvoyance. 

170. The results which have been developed by this power 
may be divided into four or five classes : — The first class may 
comprehend what is peculiar to certain persons in their nor- 
mal state. By intuition, they describe accurately what is not 
present to the external senses. Swedenborg and Zschokke 
were of this class. (162, 163.) 

2. The second may include those cases where it has been 
developed in a state of spontaneous somnambulism. Franklin 
was an instance of this kind. 

* Gen. 87: 5—86. 



166 BOOK OF HUMAN NATURE. 

3. This power is in some cases developed in a state of in- 
sanity.* 

4. In cases of the induced Trance, by Pathetism. And, 
under this head, Clairvoyance may be sub-divided thus — (1.) 
Such cases as result from sympathy with one or more minds ; 
describing things known, to minds with whom the patient is at 
the time associated by Pathetism. (2.) Such descriptions as 
persons entranced by Pathetism, give of things wholly un- 
known to the mind of the operator at the time. This is some- 
times called " independent clairvoyance." (3.) When the 
trance is self-induced ; as many persons, especially after hav- 
ing been once pathetised, acquire the power of changing their 
states from the normal to a state of trance, so as to become 
clairvoyant. And (4) in cases of Dreaming. Many of the best 
cases of clairvoyance of which I ever had personal knowledge 
have been developed in a state of dreaming. 

I have witnessed the development of clairvoyant powers in 
each of the states above described, enough to fill a volume. A 
note was written in a very fine hand on scarlet paper, seven 
inches long and five wide. The paper was folded and doubled 
up in Miss Ann E. Hall's right hand, with a pen-knife which 
I gave her to hold. And, while holding it thus tightly in her 
hand, she read all of it except the name, which is included 
in parenthesis, and this she noticed, and stated that she did 
not perceive what was included in parenthesis distinctly,! 

It is, indeed, difficult to imagine how she could discover the 
contents of a paper, which was crumpled tightly in her hand, 
at the time she read it. 

In April, 1846, I received from my brother James W. 
Sunderland, then Prof, of Math, and Nat. Phil, in the O'Fallon 
University, St. Louis, a letter dated March 18, 1846. It 
covered a letter-sheet entire, and the date had been altered 
from 17th to the 18th of March. After reading the letter 
myself, without showing it, or making it known to any other 
person, I re-sealed it, then hermetically enclosed it in glazed 

* Pathetism, New York edition of 1843, pp. 219—230. 

t This occurred on the 12th of June, 1845, at the house of Dr. Mur- 
phy, in Newport, K. I., who was present, with his wife and family.— 
Also Dr. Gallop, Mrs. Callahan, A. A. Whittemore, of Wilmot, N. H. 
and numerous other persons. The note read as follows : 

" Boston, May 15, '45. 
"Dr. Sunderland— Sir, one of Dr. Hewitt's patients (Isaac Bry- 
ant) having seen your name in yesterday's paper, is very anxious to 
be put to sleep. If you will pay him a visit and attempt to do it, he is 
ready to pay you your usual price. 

"In ilia behalf^ Jv Bounsvilijs. 

** 14 Summer street." 



CLAIRVOYANCE. 167 

paper, and sealed it with gum. It could not be opened, with- 
out tearing, or changing the glazing on the paper. There was 
no writing upon the outside, nor any indication given to the 
clairvoyant, as to what was contained in the envelop. 1 gave 
it to Mary Jane Mason, simply requesting her to dream what 
was in it. She did so, and in the presence of my family, be- 
fore the package was broken open, she read the letter, — 
noticed the peculiarity in, the date, and gave me its contents, 
from beginning to near the close, omitting a paragraph which 
had been written on one of the folds. Had there been any 
means by which she could have taken off the envelop, there 
were none by which she could have re-sealed it. My seal was 
unbroken, and hence I knew that she could not have obtained 
any knowledge of the contents of that letter except by clair- 
voyance. 

Miss Hall has written numerouspiecesof poetry, letters, and 
articles on pathetism, while entranced, and without the use of 
her external eyes. Some of them she wrote with her eyes 
bandaged, and in the presence of numerous witnesses.* 

Pre§entiii(ieitts. 

171. Dr. Binns, after relating the case of Dr. Walter, of 
Dublin, who was buried alive, observes : — 

" Here is a man who, as it were, possessed an instinctive 
knowledge that he should be buried alive, and who was so con- 
vinced of it, that he wrote a treatise, with a view if possible to 
avert so horrid a calamity ; and still farther to assure himself 
entered into a compact with a second party, for the fulfillment 
of certain precautions before he should be consigned to earth, 
yet, disappointed in the end, and compelled to bow to the 
inscrutable fiat of that law of natural contingencies which the 
imaginative Greeks erected into superstheism, and consecrated 
by the tremendous name of destiny." 

* Some of the most satisfactory instances of sympathetic clair- 
voyance, that 1 ever witnessed, were developed in New York, from a 
lady totally blind. She was 23 years of age, and had been perfectly 
blind from the time she was six weeks old, her eye-sight having been 
destroyed by accident. Feeling a deep and lively interest in the sub- 
ject, at my suggestion Mr. K. Peale, then proprietor of the New York 
Museum, called a meeting of physicians, clergyTnen, and other scienti- 
fic gentlemen, to test this power, numbering about forty in all. The 
first seance was held at the Museum, then located in Broadway, op- 
posite the Park, September 8, 1841. The experiments wore con- 
ducted under the inspection and direction of u committee, and the 
results were written down at the time by one of the committee, and 
published in the New York Watchman of November 6, 1841. They 
■will be found, also, in the author's first work on Pathetism, (New 
York, 1843,) page 211, 230. See, also. Spiritual Philosopher, No. 2^ 
in Which many interesting facts are publianed. 



168 BOOK OF HUMAN NATURE. 

A circumstance is related by Stilling, of Professor Bohm, 
teacher of mathematics at Marburg ; who, being one evening in 
company, was suddenly seized with a conviction that he ought 
to go home. As, however, he was very comfortably takmg 
tea, and had nothing to do at home, he resisted the admonition ; 
but it returned with such force that at length he was obliged 
to yield. On reaching his house, he found everything as he 
had left it ; but he now felt himself urged to remove his bed 
from the corner in which it stood to another ; but, as it had 
always stood there, he resisted this impulsion also. However, 
the resistance was vain ; absurd as it seemed, he felt he must 
do it ; so he summoned the maid, and with her aid, drew the 
bed to the other side of the room ; after which he felt quite at 
ease, and returned to spend the rest of the evening with his 
friends. At ten o'clock the party broke up, and he retired 
home, and went to bed and to sleep. In the middle of the 
night he was awakened by a loud crash, and on looking out he 
saw that a large beam had fallen, bringing part of the ceiling 
with it, and was lying exactly on the spot his bed had occupied. 
One of the most remarkable cases of presentiment I know, is 
that which occurred not very long since on board one of her 
Majesty's ships, when lying off Portsmouth. The officers 
being one day at the mess table, a young Lieutenant P. sud- 
denly laid down his knife and fork, pushed away his plate and 
turned extremely pale. He then rose from the table, covering 
his face with his hands, and retired from the room. The 
president of the mess supposing him to be ill, sent one of the 
young men to enquire what was the matter. At first Mr. P. 
was unwilling to speak ; but, on being pressed, he confessed 
that he had been seized by a sudden and irresistible impression 
that a brother he had then in India was dead. " He died," 
said he, " on the 12th of August, at six o'clock ; I am perfectly 
certain of it," No arguments could overthrow this conyic- 
tion, which, in due course of post, was verified to the letter. 
The young man had died at Cawnpore, at the precise period 
mentioned.* 



* Mrs. Crowe. 



PATHETISM. 169 



PSYCHOLOGY. 

INFLUENCE, SYMPATHY, EFFLUENCE. 



Human Influence. 

172. That is, some force exerted directly or indirectly by a 
human being, which flows in, or is received and yielded to by 
another. 

It is manifest, that all who have ever attempted to speak or 
teach on the philosophy of human influence, have felt the want 
of appropriate terms. When man controls reptiles, or beasts 
in a certain way, it is called charming, from carmen a verse, 
because the ancients exerted this power in the use of poetry. 
And hence " incantation" and " enchantment," from canto, to 
sing, 

" Fascination," from baskaino, to bewitch with the eye ; 
and influence, exerted or excited through the sense of sight, 
and hence, it was anciently called " the eye bite." 

When Mesmer commenced his career as an operator, it does 
not seem to have occurred to him, or his immediate friends, 
that the influence he exerted, was precisely the same as that 
which had been known from time immemorial under the name 
of charm or fascination. And, surprised and flattered by the 
extraordinary results which he found himself able to indijce, 
he at once set about the formation of a theory of magnetism ; 
and as he operated upon the living body, he called ii '* animal 
magnetism." 

But this term, as it is well known, was never well received, 
even by believers in the thing which it was used to signify. 
And, so not knowing what else to call it, it was natural that 
his own name should have come into use, to signify an in- 
fluence which he had been so conspicuous in bringing to the 
notice of the world. To the present time, in England, the 
term " mesmerism," is generally used, when speaking on this 
fifubjecJt* though in Francb, Germany, and Prussia, w6 l*Uth?» 



170 BOOK OF HUMAN NATURE. 

no new terms have ever been suggested to take the place of 
the old one. 

In this country, various other terms have been substituted. 
In 1841, Professor George Bush suggested to me a term which 
I thought still more appropriate. I adopted it, and have never 
heard of one which so nearly signified the thing meant, as the 
one to which I now refer. If the leading idea in the subject 
now under notice, be suggested by the word sympathy, then 
why should we not use a term, which to say the least, may be 
easily accommodated to signify a sympathetic influence, ex- 
erted or received 1 

All object to the use of the terra animal when speaking of 
what belongs more to the human mind ; and precisely the 
same objection holds against the terms " magnetism" and 
" electricity ;" for, strictly speaking, magnetism is far below 
the living body, and, applies to unconscious matter, not to the 
thinking, feeling substance. Hence, it were as correct to 
speak of an earthly mind, and earthly soul, as it is to speak of 
" electrical Psychology," or the *' electrical science of the 
soul." 

It is curious to read some of the terms which various lec- 
turers have brought, or attempted to bring into use, when 
speaking of the science or fact of spiritual, or human influence. 
One calls it " absorption," another " psycodunamy," another 
" etherology," another " neurology," and yet, another dubs it 
with the euphonious and classical term of " thusology," or, 
worse than all, "mental alchemy !" 

If, as we are taught, we are all tending to a harmonious 
state of perfect unity, we doubt not all the truly spiritual will, 
by-and-by " see eye to eye," and agree in the use of terms. 
They will not shun each other, nor lack eyes to see the 
beautiful and true, but forgetting our peculiar individualisms 
which repel and drive us asunder, we shall expand in the 
broad circle of universal brotherhood. 

Patlietisni. 

173. Under this term, T include all those nervous and men- 
tal phenomena, that are artificially induced or, that come to 
pass from the laws of sympathy, or associations, or the in- 
fluence of one mind, which is received and developed in another. 
The influence exerted is reflective, proceeding from the acting- 
agent, but receptive and retentive in the subject in which the 
influence is received, and from whence it may be evolved in 
another form and degree. Minds control, and are controlled 
through their corresponding degrees and spheres, according to 
which associations are formed between them. 

The methods for bringing about these associations, may be 



PATHETISM. 171 

learned from the Author's Book of Psychology — the object 
of which is to explain them.* 

Conditions of Power. 

174. As the higher degrees comprehend all below, so the 
highest developments of mind must necessarily control all 
below with whom they become associated. (69.) It would 
be difficult to associate any two minds of precisely the same 
degree. There is such an endless variety in the different de- 
gree of their different susceptibilities. Each has the same 
number of mental organs, but in their qualities, maturity, size 
of the organs, education, and many other things which go to 
make up the idiosyncrasy of each person, there will be a 
variety of differences, which tend to make them unlike, and 
give one an influence over the other. It is from these con- 
trarieties and antagonisms, that, as a general thing, the sexes 
have more power over each other, than either can now have 
over another sex. From this may be seen upon how many 
different considerations does the influence which one mind has 
over another, depend. The comparative size of the brains, 
the size of the different organs, the views of the person, the 
skill, tact, intelligence, firmness, time, place, circumstances, 
motives, and many other things are to be taken into the ac- 
count before it can be determined how much power one mind 
would be able to exert over another, or, before we can deter- 
mine the nature of the influence whether good or bad. 

It has quite recently been assumed that the human mind, 
can, without external contact, will, or cause a ponderous phy- 
sical body to move from place to place ! But, no one imagines 
this, who is at all familiar with the laws of mind. (12, 13.) 
And a still more preposterous idea has been put forth, for the 
purpose of avoiding the necessity of admitting the fact of 
" spiritual manifestations," that the " nervous system elimi- 
nates a force, independently of conscious volition, which con- 
trols inanimate bodies, and causes sounds," &c. All this is 
mere assumption from first to last. 

* For a full and explicit account of the Author's new method of 
inducing artificial nervous phenomena, see bis Book of Psychology 
(Fathetism) ; Historical, Pliilosophical, Practical ; giving the rationale 
^ of every possible form of Nervous or Mental Phenomena, known 
under the technics of Amulets, Charms, Fascination, Magic, Mes- 
merism, Eelics, Witchcraft, Hallucination, Spectres, Clairvoyance, 
Somnambulism, Miracles, Sympathy, &c. : showing how these results 
may be induced, the Theory of Mind which they demonstrate, and 
the benevolent Uses to which this knowledge should be applied. 
Price 25 cents. Sent postage free to any part of the United States. 
Address, pt^t paid, Stearns & Co.j 25 Ann Street, New York* 



172 BOOK OF HUMAN NATUKE. 



Mental Associations. 

175. Whatever may be the degrees in which love, and 
wisdom are developed in any two minds, one cannot affect 
the other till the requisite associations are formed between 
them. And as all minds are always affected by associations, 
so the effects always correspond with the nature of these asso- 
ciations, whether sensuous, mental, or spiritual. And in each 
degree they may be partial or mutual. 

Cliarin. 

176. Hence it is, that the dog shrinks from the frown of 
his master, the bird is paralyzed or charmed by the eye of the 
snake, the infant is gratified or terrified by the smile or frown 
of its nurse. And, in this same law, we find the philosophy 
of ecstasy, fascinatioi;, the power of charms and amulets, the 
results produced by faith, hope, fear and joy. All these re- 
sults come to pass, often, without any reflection, and without 
reason, simply by impressions suggested to the mind, or made 
upon the nervous system, by the laws of association. And 
hence come 

Hallucinations. 

177. Partial or defective associations are such as the mind 
forms between itself and real or imaginary beings, so that the 
nervous system is affected in one way or another, correspond- 
ing to the emotions and volitions of love towards those ob- 
jects, whether they be real, or merely imaginary. Disease, 
or disturbances in the nutritive processes, induce these asso- 
ciations, and this is what constitutes monomania, and mental 
hallucinations ; when the nervous molecules become perma- 
nently disorganized, it constitutes insanity and madness. In 
this manner, where the wisdom is not developed, people have 
imagined themselves bewitched, or possessed by evil spirits, 
from which their will had not the power to free them. And 
we see, also, how it comes to pass, as it often does, that peo- 
ple are affected sympathetically, and made to laugh, or gape, 
thrown into convulsive imitations of persons, whom thev see 
affected in any peculiar manner, or of whom they hear. Their 
love, or the constitutional susceptibilities of their minds, be- 
come excited, so that the nutritive forces leave the controlling 
organs, and they either do not know what they do, or if they 
know, the will-power is not strong enough to obey the dic- 
tates of wisdom, and hence they testify that they resisted 
with all their might, and the more they strove against it, the 
more they were affected, hecausie the nutritive forties being 



PATHETISM. 173 

concentrated in love or imitation, the will necessarily assisted 
in guiding, while the wisdom forbid it, and did all it could to 
prevent what came to pass. In this way many persons are 
often compelled to laugh or weep, not only against their 
wishes, but against all their efforts to resist these states of 
feeling. \ 

Mysteries Elxplaiiiecl. 

178. These laws enable us to comprehend how it is, that 
persons of a peculiar temperament become " impressed," as 
they say, with a certain idea, or a certain view of themselves 
or others ; and also, how it is that they become hallucinated, 
and even deluded with the false and hypothetical. Thus, if 
the leading thought combine the peculiar characteristics of 
Witchcraft, then the person becomes bewitched ; and there 
are two methods by which this idea works. The first is, 
where the victim indulges a suspicion of another person. The 
history of this delusion gives an account of accusations, ar- 
rests, legal trials, convictions, and capital executions of thou- 
sands of poor, defenceless, and innocent people, upon the 
merest suspicion of some self-hallucinated, deluded mortal, 
who happened to conceive the idea of witchcraft against one 
of his neighbors. 

The other phase of this delusion is when the victim really 
imagines himself in league with the devil, and riding through 
the air upon a broomstick. With a slight knowledge of hu- 
man neture, one might well doubt, indeed, whether such con- 
fusion in the human intellect were even possible. But, we 
have seen, that it is the complexity of man's organism, the ex- 
quisiteness in the finish of his faculties, that renders him more 
liable than the animal below him, to get out of repair while 
in this rudimentary state. And hence it is, when discord is 
once induced in his superior nature, that such melancholy and 
distressing results are known to follow. 

liaiirs of Habit. 

179. When the mind has been once impressed with an in- 
fluence from any cause, it takes cognizance of this law of as- 
sociation, and in cases of high susceptibility, it does some- 
times either create, or transfer it from one substance or agent 
to another — and hence, the system is affected precisely ac- 
cording to the anticipations of the mind, and not according to 
the ^al qualities of those things to which the association has 
been transferred. In this manner persons often fancy them- 
selves associated with spiritual beings, good or bad, but which 
have no existence except in the imaginations of the minds 
thus exercised. By changing the associations we may, by de- 



174 BOOK OF HUMAN NATURE. 

sign or incidentally, change the mental or physical powers, — 
and thus by exciting one sense we may suspend each of the 
others, as neither two of the senses can be excited to a cer- 
tain degree at one and the same time. Hence it is, that the 
thought or idea of a state or condition of the mind or body, 
when fixed in the mind for a sufficient length of time, sus- 
pends the senses, and brings on that very change or state. 

Mutual §yiiipatky. 

180. Mutual associations. The degree of influence 
which one mind will be able to exert designedly over another, 
will depend upon the reciprocity of the association formed be- 
tween them. As we have seen, one mind may be Pathetised 
by a partial association with another, whom it has seen mere- 
ly, or of whom it has read or heard. In this manner, the 
reader may be Pathetised by these pages ; that is, he may 
thus be induced to believe what is here written, or something 
that is false, about himself or another — but for him or any one 
else to be Pathetised, by design, into a state of trance, or in- 
to any other emotion, volition, or mental change, there must 
be an agreeable, mutual association between the two minds 
for that purpose. And here, again, we must observe that as- 
sociations ascend in forms, degrees and spheres, from the in- 
stinctive to the sensuous, mental and spiritual, and the influ- 
ence and results correspond with each of the degrees in which 
the associations are formed. The sensuous produces sensual 
phenomena ; the mental produces emotions and volition^, and 
the spiritual evolve intelligence, wisdom, intellectuality. But 
observe, mutuality in the association does not imply" equality 
in all the degrees of mental development. The two minds as- 
sociated may both excel; that is, one may excel in one organ, 
and the other may excel in another ; neither their love nor 
■wisdom may exactly correspond, but they may and must cor- 
respond in quality, or the object of their love. They may 
both love the same result, and they must desire it, or no 
mutual association is or can be formed, for love is the ele- 
ment, the origin, and the foundation of all real unity. Differ- 
ences in the love makes apathy, antipathy, aversion, hatred. 
But where two minds love alike, there is sympathy, and 
the results must and always do correspond, when associa- 
tions are formed between sensuous, mental or spiritual love. 

Analysis of tliis State. ^ 

181. As this seems to be, perhaps, the highest sphere in 
which one mind controls another, let us analyze it : — 

1. At first sensuous love is affected, and our emotions are 
excited through the external senses merely. 



PATHETISM. 175 

2. The association next extends to, and excites the mind 
to volition, and the attention is more or less interested in the 
result. 

3. The next degree extends to wisdom, the innermost prin- 
ciple, or the spirit ; the sagacity, reason and penetration are 
satisfied ; spiritual love is satisfied, excited, and the results 
follow as a matter of course. This is a spiritual association 
which is the perfection of unity, and thus the will of one has 
control over the nutritive fluid of the other, and this fluid 
obeys the will of the other, and thus it is made to leave sensa- 
tion, the external senses, and consciousness, till the mind is 
perfectly controlled by the will of the other! Whatever 
change (within the sphere of life) be willed by one, is yielded 
to and evolved in the state of the other. 

Such are the successive steps for reaching the higher de- 
grees of mental sympathy. 

Spiritual Unity. 

182. As this is the highest that can be formed, between 
human beings, it, of course, must control all below it. It is 
manifest therefore, that, in all cases, the change made in the 
emotions, volitions, and actions, of one mind, by the will of an- 
other, must necessarily correspond with the degrees and 
associations formed between them ; and from which we may 
perceive how beautifully all the phenomena of mind correspond 
with the forms, order, motions, degrees, and spheres, which 
enter into the mind, and constitute the laws of the mental or 
spii"itual world. (20, 21.) The sensuous will, or the will ex- 
pressed, through and to the senses, produces sensuous results 
merely ; but from this degree another and higher one may be 
evolved. Having produced a suspension of the patient's exter- 
nal senses, you next induce a mental result, which is a change 
in his mind. His own mind controls his own nutritive forces. 
Having associated your mind with his, his mind, directed by 
yours, controls all his external senses, or the degree below ; so 
that he ceases to see, hear, or feel, except through your ex- 
ternal senses, because your mind is accessible through your 
external senses ; and hence, what reaches your mind, will 
reach his, provided it pass through your will by which he is 
controlled. In this state your patient becomes unconscious of 
-pain, or whatever changes are produced in his sensitive system, 
because his nutritive fluid has left that, and gone to his mental 
system^, by which his sensation has been subdued. This is the 
second degree, in which, by volition, you change the mind of 
yoiir patient, and cause him to sympathize with your mental 
wishes, to any extent within his sphere. From this you may 
carry him ijp to the third or spiritual state, which is the 



176 BOOK OF HUMAN NATURJE. 

highest. In this state his wisdom, or intuition, is perfectly 
developed, and he knows your spirit, and whatever comes 
within the degree of his development. For here, also, the 
spirit ascends by degrees, and the knowledge of all who are 
raised into this state will correspond, exactly, with the degrees 
in which their wisdom has been developed. 

PMlosoptiy of Mental Effluence. 

183. Thus it may be seen how one mind is influenced by 
another ; and how it is that these degrees of mental develop- 
ment, and ASSOCIATIONS, explain the philosophy of all the 
influences, given or received, by all classes of minds, young 
and old, good and bad, the feeble and the strong, the world 
over. To make this matter still more plain : 

We may consider the soul as passive, which receives; and 
the mind as active, or the power that communicates ; and the 
spirit as the substance, or essence, given. The spitnt is coni' 
municated, by writing, speaking, in the tones of the voice, by 
the touch of the hand, by signs, gestures, the loill, or, in what- 
ever way it may be possible for one mind to make known its 
wishes to another, when those wishes are received. (67.) 
The impression made, always corresponds with the spirit of 
the mind by whom the influence or power is exerted ; that is, 
when the impression is received, and understood, or the in- 
fluence is yielded to ; in that case, the soul sympathizes with 
the spirit with which it becomes impregnated by the active 
mind, and in this way is pathetised into the likeness and dis- 
position of another. But, when the soul does not yield, does 
not sympathize with the wishes, or power attempted to be 
exerted over it, in that case the spirit is not imparted, and a 
state of apathy or antipathy, in the mind of the patient, or sub- 
ject, is the result. 

Government of Cliildren. 

184. Pathetise your child with your own spirit, and you will 
control him — otherwise you do nothing. Excite in your own 
mvid the feelings and disposition with which you wish to 
imbue your children ; thus you may render them like yourself, 
and if you control your own mind, you may govern them. 
Bear in mind, therefore, that all whom you control by ef- 
fluence, or influence, will imitate you ; your children especially, 
will think, appear, and act like you. See here, the error so 
often fallen into by parents ; they expect their children to be 
different from themselves. The parent is angry, but chides 
his offspring for the want of love ; the parent is rough and 
angular in his conduct, but is dissatisfied with his child who is 
wanting in gentleness. 



PATHETISM. 177 

If you desire your child always to obey you, cause him to 
love you. Now, if you really love another you know what 
you do to excite a corresponding state of mind. Love has a 
language of its ovi^n ; its own peculiar methods for accom- 
plishing its ends. It need not be told what to say, nor what 
to do. It speaks for itself, and its language is not very likely 
ever to be misunderstood. Love begets love, and love of its 
own kind and degree. 

Hence, if you cause your child really and truly to love you, 
(or rather, I might say, he will really love you, if you do not 
prevent it,) then he will obey you, as a matter of course, in 
proportion as he loves you. 

Another rule is, that you should always, as far as possible, 
make your child pleased with himself. That is, be cautious 
and sparing in censure. If your own conscientiousness, your 
own executiveness be strong, you will be likely to blame, not 
merely with undue severity, but you may censure from a love 
of it. Be cautious. If the child love you, a mutual knowledge 
of his fault will give him pain. If his love for you be feeble, 
the less you blame him the better. And by all means avoid 
the manifestation of pleasure when you point out his faults. 
The errors of the child will give you sorrow, if you love him, 
and if you can let that sorrow be perceived without directly 
blaming the child, so much the better it may be. 

At times, it may be necessary to censure. It should always 
be done with tenderness, gentleness, and unless the nature of 
the offence forbid, the blame should be administered in private. 
Parental discipline is lost when the child's love of approbation 
is mortified, to an undue extent, by the needless exposure of 
his crime. 

Promptitude and decision, are sometimes wanting on the 
part of teachers and parents. No two children may be pre- 
cisely alike, in some respects. But in one point of view, they 
are indeed, all alike, they are children, they need to be in- 
formed ; they do not know till they are instructed ; and they 
are not capable of self-government. The parents, guardians, 
and teachers, therefore, should govern them, direct them, and 
" train them up in the way they should go," discipline them, 
habituate them to courses of study, and industry, by which 
their natures become developed into perfect manhood. 

But it may be asked, what shall be done when a child is 
refractory, and continually so 1 I answer, many things are 
often done in such cases, which ought not to be : things which 
show the parent to be in need of instruction as really and more, 
even than the child. Let it be borne in mind by those whose 
duty it is to govern, that the child did not make himself, he 
was not consulted, and had no choice as to his physical or 



178 BOOK OF HUMAN NATUKE. 

mental organization. The moral disposition, therefore, of the 
" wayward" child is not a matter for which he is to be blamed 
any more than that he should be punished for his complexion 
or size of his body. Hence, the first thing that concerns the 
parent or teacher is to ascertain as near as possible, the cast 
of the child's organism. Which way does it tend, on the 
whole 1 Which way, under given circumstances? What 
does he most love 1 How is he the most easily diverted ? Is 
he fond of physical exercise 1 Fond of study 1 Combative ? 
Secretive 1 Acquisitive 1 Destructive 1 Constructive 1 Gentle ? 
Rough 1 That is, what is the bent of his character, con- 
sidered as a whole, for all have these and other faculties com- 
bined in greater or less degrees. 

IMow, when we consider that the sympathetic, imitative nature 
in children, is the plastic ground upon which all impressions 
are made by effluence, or by what they witness from others, 
and especially their parents and teachers, is it any marvel 
that by example, the child should sometimes be taught to fal^' 
sify, to deceive, and even to indulge in anger? Again, I re- 
peat, you do pathetise your child with your own spirit, in a 
most important sense. For, the child has a part of his nature 
and his disposition from you; you had it before him. The 
composition of his faculties is somewhat different, not precisely 
the same, though often we find that in some one faculty the 
child will, indeed, be the very same, and perhaps, even excel 
the parents in that one trait. Here, then, you have an ad- 
vantage which should assist you. You know what your own 
nature is, and how you would be assisted now, as, also, how 
you were assisted when you, yourself, were a child and under 
tutorage. 

And then, you, also, pathetise your child by your example, 
by your own manners. Whether you design all you do for his 
eye and ear or not, he is necessarily impressed by all your 
conduct of which he has any knowledge or belief. Think of 
this. Not your manners towards the- child merely, but 
towards all your family, all human beings, and the animal 
creation even. Cruelty to a brute should never be indulged, 
especially in the presence of children. The philosophy we 
have been contemplating makes it plain, that when a weak 
point is noticed in a child, the object of the parent should be to 
guard that point, not to assail it. Avoid temptation. Do not 
bring about such circumstances as will operate with undue 
power upon the child's weaker faculties. If his eyes were 
tender and unable to bear the light, would you cause him to 
gaze at the meridian sun "? If one limb were lame, would 
you compel him to use that one, more on this account ? 

Thus, if he is angry, do not imitate him, and thus become 



PATHETISM. 179 

so yourself. As a general rule, the best thing which can be 
done when a child is in a fit of passion (if any thing should be 
done at such a time) is to divert him by calling into action 
some other organs. This direction applies more particularly 
to young children, but it may be of use, also, in saving others 
wiio are more advanced, from violent fits of anger. It is diffi- 
cult to conceive how much and how serious the injury is that 
is often done to children by punishing them when they are 
mad, or by combating their combativeness. These organs, 
we should remember, resist always, and to attempt to subdue 
them by their like, is the same as if we were to attempt to ex- 
tinguish the burning flames by adding more fire. 

A partial acquaintance with the laws we have been contem- 
plating, will be sufficient to show, that, many children are re- 
ported as ungovernable, principally because we do not know 
how to do it. We take hold of the wrong faculties. We ex- 
cite them in the wrong direction. All children are more or 
less fond of physical exercise. They cannot live without it. 
Shut them up, confine them from morning till night in one 
corner of the room, or compelled to sit upon an ordinary 
school bench six hours in a day, and see how restless, impa- 
tient, and refractory the best of children will very soon become. 
In this manner, they are often impelled (by their want of mo- 
tion) to deeds of mischief. The nutritive fluid, the nervous 
force, or whatever else it be in their systems, seeks for egress. 
They must indulge in those motions which are egestive, (54,) 
and which are the promptings of their inmost nature. Their 
organs of mirth and playfulness, are the channels through 
which this steam is let off. What nature demands for them 
and in them, they cannot be denied without injury. It is, 
therefore, as really the parent's duty to afford recreation, ex- 
ercise, and playful amusement for his children, as it is to pro- 
vide them wholesome food. And never does a parent appear 
to more advantage than when thus watching for the grati- 
fication of his loved little ones. His judgment and superior 
strength, his presence and directions give to the amusement 
an appropriateness, a fitness, and use. It is safe, and manly, 
because it tends to the harmonious development of the nature 
which God has given us.* 



* la the Book of Health, the reader will find some further obser- 
vations, addressed to parents and children, and in which are soma 
practical remarks in respect to Eecreation, Study, the Occupation, 
&c. 



180 BOOK OF HirMAN NATURE. 



Mow to do Oood. 

185. Reformatory/ Measures. Here we have the laws by 
which the vicious are to be reformed, and the wayward re- 
strained from vice. Here is the secret of success in the Tem- 
perance cause, and the cause of humanity and benevolence in 
all their diversified ramifications. We succeed just in propor- 
tion as we adapt our measures to the nature of mind, and pro- 
ceed according to the laws which constitute human nature, and 
make the world what it is. 

Religious^ Political, and other excitements. In the laws 
here developed, we have the rationale of all the influences 
ever exerted or felt, whether good or evil. The history of the 
world does not afford an instance of any excitement, any kind 
of mania, by whatever name it may have been known, which 
may not, and ought not to be accounted for, according to the 
philosophy of the human mind, and which was not originated, 
induced, carried on, and controlled, from first to last, by the 
sympathetic, imitative laws of association which I have here 
explained, 

©orrespondifiig Cliaracterisfics. 

186. To perceive the true philosophy of all religious, sec- 
tarian, political and philanthropic movements, we have only to 
consider what has already been said in relation to the doctrine 
of SPHERES, (150) the laws of Sympathetic Imitation, (154) 
together with what is said of the Temperaments, (142, 144,) 
and the entire rationale of all rnental effluence and influence. 
To make this still more manifest, then, we observe ; — 

The Germ. 

187. 1. That all of them, always and everywhere, partake 
more or less of the peculiar sphere of the mind by whom they 
were originated. In the beginning, there is one man, one 
sphere, which serves as the germ of the whole succeeding 
movement. And, as truly as the plant is known to take its 
shape, color, essence, form and use, from the germ whence 
it sprang, so with corresponding exactness does the " revival" 
take its character from the mind, which stands highest, and 
fills the largest sphere in the germinal movement. That mind 
is also " impressed" by the surrounding influences of the age, 
and the place where he lives. If he had to breathe an im- 
pure atmosphere, his spiritual lungs were accordingly affect- 
id with disease. He could not.expand into an enlarged and 
perfect sphere, if his feet were put into iron shoes, and his 
mental system subjected to the unnatural pressure of swaddling 



PATHETISM. 181 

bands. Perfect manhood is developed, not born. So the per- 
fection, the harmonious manhood of the Race, is the slow 
work of ages ; it is not brought out in a day. 

The sphere of Moses may be taken as a type, in the early 
ages. Tlie prohibitions (to be found in the writings attributed 
10 him) which he enjoined on his followers in respect to the 
use of swine's flesh, are among the beauties of his teachings ; 
while his directing his countrymen to sell dead carcases, that 
were not fit for food, to the heathen, m.ay be set down as 
characteristic of the times in which he lived. So, also, in re- 
spect to the views he gives of the Divine Father. How evi- 
dently they partake of the age in which they were written. 
The world was then supposed to be divided and possessed be- 
tween a number of deities, each of whom v/ere controlled 
by vindictive and combative feelings, precisely as were the 
political chieftains and warriors of those times. The Jews, 
if they professed to worship "one God," did nevertheless as 
firmly believe in a devil-god, a devil separate from Jehovah, 
but who was well nigh as powerful as the true God. And, 
then, what a terrible, angry, fighting, combative, vindictive 
God, was he of the " stifi*-necked and rebellious" Jews ! 
His distinguishing attributes were Power, if not jealousy and 
anger. Such was the atmosphere which JMoses had to 
breathe ; such was the moral food with which his mind was 
fed ; and hence he shows himself in all he utters of the Infi- 
nite God. We see the mind of the man Moses in the ten 
commandments ;* in the bloody sacrifices he enjoined upon 
his countrymen ; in the severe and vindictive peiiaities with 
which he enforced his laws. Death, for gathering a i'ew 
sticks on one particular day in the week ; death, for happen- 
ing to own an unruly ox! This may have been right for 
Moses, and it may have been the best that could, under all the 
circumstances of the case, have been enacted for that people, 



* A distinguished English Geologist recently stated in a conversa- 
tion witli a friend of ours, that among the results to which Layard 
and Kawlinson have been led by their researches at Nineveh, is the 
following: That ihe p?-ophecies of Daniel were undoubtedly written 
after the events to wnicli they refer had taken place, and that the 
whole of this book is probably nothing but a political satire ! This, 
though suppressed by Layard in his work, has been cotninuiiicated 
to the London Asiatic Society, by Major Euwlinson, and will proba- 
bly soon appear in its published traus:ictions. 

In one of the works upon Egyptian Hieroglyphics recently published 
in Germany, which has come under our notice, is a table of Com- 
mandments copied from an inscription of the date of one of the elder 
Pharaohs. These are more in number than the Jewish Decalogue, 
but some six or eight of them are the same. — JS^ew Torlc Tribune^ Jan, 
17, 1858. 



182 BOOK OF HUMAN NATURE. 

and at that age of the world. But, in these things, we see 
the infancy of the race ; the sphere that Moses filled, how far 
short he fell of true Manhood, while he possessed virtues and 
excellencies that made him truly a Religious Chieftain, per- 
haps the best that Nature could provide for the age in which 
he lived. 

But, mark in what sense Moses still lives, even in the ex- 
ternal world. Observe with what force his teachings are 
" impressed" upon the minds of his followers. So large was 
his sphere, that it extends down the stream of time from age 
to age, moulding and shaping the minds of men, even against 
the antagonizing laws of eternal progression. 

Mohammed may be taken as another type. The ignorance 
and errors of the age and the country where he lived, made 
him what he was. Necessitated to receive more or less of the 
errors of that age, they thus became a constituent part of 
his moral nature. And the larger his sphere, the more pow- 
erful his mind, the more diffused his errors became. He is 
the germ whence sprung the Coran. Hence if he was a mix- 
ture of truth and error, the efflux from him must correspond ; 
and thus he impresses his " image and superscription" upon 
all true Mussulmen as really as if they had been born of his 
loins. His mind is in them, his sphere reaches and sur- 
rounds them ; and it becomes thus manifest, from the Moham- 
medan of to-day, whom we do see, what the first Mohammed 
was, centuries ago — because he thus, flowing into his follow- 
ers, becomes an object of our knowledge as really as if he 
were here, living and moving amongst us. 

And so of John Calvin, John Wesley, and Swedenborg. 
Thus of Joanna Southcote, Ann Lee, and Joe Smith. Con- 
template the sphere filled by each or either of these person- 
ages. Observe how it is extended and lived over again in the 
" circles" which they have each attracted around them. Is it 
difficult to see the features of the Geneva reformer in the 
" horrible decree" contained in the creeds of his followers, to 
this day, and which consigns unborn myriads to the pains of 
an endless hell 1 

The sphere of Wesley comprehended less of the repulsive, 
vindictive ; but we see him in the peculiarities of his sect. 
They believe as he believed, pray as he prayed, preach as he 
preached, dress as he dressed, do as he did, and consider it 
an evidence of peculiar merit, that they do not differ from 
him at all ! In their devotions they use certain terms because 
he used them, and often boast of their being like him ; they are 
* Wesleyans," and imagine they are receivers of the Truth, 
because they are Wesleyans, not that they are like him be- 
cause they are truthful. Their revivals, (when they had 



1 



PATHETISM. 183 

them — they are not now very common) were characteristic of 
Wesley. Wesley's mind was in them, they were comprehend- 
ed in tils sphere, partook of his peculiar views and errors. 
Hence all who become Wesleyan must comply with certain 
psychological conditions, must go through a certain routine of 
mental exercises, have certain "feelings," "hopes," and 
"fears," as Wesley himself did. They must believe in the 
devil as he did, believe in Jesus as he did ; and these states 
of " feeling " are enforced under the threat of eternal dam- 
nation ! 

In the garb of the Quaker we see George Fox. In the po- 
lygamy and fanaticism of Mormonism we see Joe Smith. 
And, in any and every sectarian excitement ever " got up," 
we may see the spirit, the ignorance, or intelligence of the 
germ whence it started. 

The Idea. 

188. 2. That in the large political and sectarian circles, which 
certain chieftains have attracted around them, the mind has 
been impressed and overpowered by some leading and promi- 
nent idea, which, whether true or false, this leading idea has 
carried with it, any number of lesser ideas that were not truth- 
ful but false. Thus with Moses, and Mohammed, it was the 
unity of God. With Calvin, it was the Horrible Decree. 
With the Papists, it is the supremacy of the Pope, and the in- 
fallible authority of the Church. With Protestants, it is the 
plenary inspiration, uncorrupted preservation, and Divine 
authority of the Bible as an all sufficient rule of faith and prac- 
tice ; in other words, putting a book in the place of the Divine 
Father of all. 

In this manner, all religious chieftains, and all political 
leaders have commenced, who have succeeded in drawing 
large circles around them. The wrong of which loud com- 
plaints are made, and the great idea which is held out for the 
purpose of attracting disciples and partisans, so completely 
dazzles and overwhelms the mind in the excitement of the 
moment, that multitudes of smaller errors flow in at the wide 
door that has thus been opened. Absorbed in the contempla- 
tion of one great truth, or an idea that is thought to be true, 
the mind is unprepared for criticism, is off its guard in re- 
spect to lesser matters. The presumption is, that, if Wesley, 
or Fox, or Swedenborg, were the chosen instruments of one 
great truth so immensely important, they must have been the 
favorites of heaven in such a sense as to prevent their having 
erred in any thing. That is, this view is entertained of each 
chieftain by the partisans of their sect respectively, and not by ' 
votaries of the chieftains of conflicting and rival leaders. For 



184 BOOK OP HUMAN" NATUKE. 

it must be borne in mind, that, precisely in proportion as the 
partisans of one leader put faith in their own chieftain, they 
repel and repudiate all others. 

Tradition. 

189. 3. Another characteristic trait in these pathematic move- 
ments is this : — their exclusiveness, sectarianism, and fanati- 
cism, are in the direct ratio of the authority which they attach 
to tradition, or what is the same, to testimony, which you are 
not permitted to examine. And, with the undeveloped mind, 
the further back you trace the links of tradition the better ; 
not to the days of your oldest ancestors, not back to the third 
or fourth generation merely, nor extending beyond hundreds 
of years ; but, somewhere away back, beyond the fourth, fifth, 
or sixth thousandth century even ; or, as the Chinese have it, 
somewhere beyond the hundred thousandth century, extending 
so far even that the years could not be counted. Then, the 
story becomes quite venerable with age, and no one ever 
thinks of asking, is it true ? But, the whole is taken for 
granted, nor do the 'multitude once dream of questioning 
authority so sacred, sanctioned by the lapse of so many ages 
away back, where " thought cannot follow, and bold fancy 
dies." 

Thus, the creeds of sectarians have been handed down to 
us, and the more obscurity there is about their origin, or some 
of their tenets, the more direct their appeals to credulity and 
the organs of marvelousness. Hence tlie fables of purgatory, 
the fumes of fire and brimstone in hell, and above all, the old 
cloven footed devil, constitute the means with which assaults 
have been so successfully made upon the organs of caution 
and credulity in getting up a " revival of religion." And we 
shall find, the farther back we go in the history of all this class 
of excitements, the more and more the " devil" had to do with 
them. The preacher believed more in the devil, the people 
believed more in him, and this same devil was as necessary in 
" getting up" a revival as any other personage, not excepting 
Jesus Christ. Who ever heard of a real " revival," where 
the parties in it did not believe in the devil 1 Did any thing 
of this kind ever take place? If so, when, and where? And 
it is a remarkable fact, that to this day, the faith of multitudes 
is still so strong in tradition, that their feelings are as much 
hurt to hear any thing said against the common notions of the 
devil, as they are when any thing is said disparagingly of the 
common views of God. Indeed, the modern sectarian can 
tolerate the idea of an atheist ; but a believer in the Deity, and 
in an immortal happy existence, who repudiates the tradi- 
lional notions of the devil, is exceedingly repulsive, and can- 
not be endured. 



MENTAL CONTAGION. 185 



Mental Contagion. 

190. The illustrations already given of the spheres of mental 
and physical bodies, (19, 24,) will enable us to comprehend 
how it is, that those local and general excitements have pre- 
vailed, denominated wars, religious, " revivals," and the like. 

There is a kind of contagion, purely mental, so to speak ; a 
peculiar aptitude in minds, and society, to assume a peculiar 
train of thought, or feeling, grave or gay, as the circumstances 
may dictate, and this tendency, arises from the laws of sympa- 
thy (67. 69) and association already described, and for which 
the science of psychology must be considered abundantly able 
to account. 

Resistance excites war. Worship excites devotional emo- 
tions. One mind is excited by its associations with others, 
and the nature or character of the results of all excitements 
depend upon the faculties of the mind concerned in carrying 
them on. 

Tlie Cmsades. 

191. One of the greatest excitements ever " got up" in Eu- 
rope, was that produced by the Crusades, and that excitement 
was begun by one mind. Peter the Hermet, during the pontifi- 
cate of Pope Urban II. travelled all over Europe, describing 
the indignities practised by the Turks, in Palestine, on be- 
lievers, and calling on Christians everywhere to rally around 
the standard he raised for the rescue of the Holy Land from 
the infidels. So humble was his demeanor, so saintly his ap- 
pearance, and so vehement his eloquence, that he gathered an 
army of 60,000 men with whom he marched to Jerusalem : 
and he kindled throughout Europe that ardent spirit, which, 
for ages found busy employment in the crusades against the 
infidels. 

Heroism. 

192. History furnishes innumerable instances of this philoso- 
phy. L. Sylla, in the midst of battle, finding his troops giving 
way before the forces of Mithridates, dismounted, seized a 
standard, and reared it in the midst of the enemy, crying out to 
his retreating soldiers, " Here, Romans ! it is that I shall stand, 
and here I'll die ! Report yCur General left in front of the 
enemy !" This appeal was enough : his army rallied, drove 
back the enemy, and remained masters of the field. 

It is also asserted, that Zeno Eleates, pitying the sufferings 
of the Agrigentines, from the tyranny of Phalaris, their king, 
attempted to reason the tyrant into mercy ; but he failed. He 



186 BOOK OF HUMAN NATURE. 

then sought to rouse the nobles t9a sense of their degradation ; 
bat in vain. Being then summoned to the presence of the 
tyrant, who was surrounded by his trembling nobles, Zeno dis-, 
dained to answer the questions of Phalaris, but turning to these 
nobles, he reproached them with their pusillanimity in terms so 
keen, that, stung to the quick, they roused themselves to sudden 
action, and stoned on the spot, the very tyrant before whose 
power they but a moment before, were "trembling. 

I»aitic§. 

193. The same sympathetic panic often seizes upon large 
assemblies of people. A word or a hint from one individual 
communicates a shock through the whole. In this way mobs 
are frequently stimulated to ungovernable fury, and soldiers, in 
the day of battle, rush on in the face o^ death ; or, panic struck, 
the fear spreads from one to thousands, and those who but a 
moment before, were ready to brave the cannon's mouth, are 
now trembling with fear, and find it impossible to summon 
either courage or self-possession. At other times, a word, or 
look from some master spirit, electrifies the mass around him, 
and from one to another the impulse communicates a feeling of 
heroism and intrepidity, which increases as it spreads, till the 
entire mass are impatient to throw their lives away in the 
whirlwind of their ambition.* 

Mental Infection. 

194. If one person is said to see a ghost, it not unfrequently 
happens that a sensibility is awakened in the minds of many 
others, till the infection has spread, and ghosts are multiplied 
in proportion to the susceptibility of the people who happen to 
hear the strange details of the departed spirits. So, if one in a 
family, or neighborhood, happens to have a singular dream, it 
is followed with others of the same kind. In a word, whatever 
is related to the strange or marvellous, whatever is calculated 
to excite credulity or fear, operates by sympathy, and in this 
way we may easily account for the prevalence of many crimes, 
and the various forms of delusion, which have from time to 
time, so much disturbed and cursed the world. 

In these laws of the human mind we may find a satisfactory 
solution of an excitement which has swept over the length and 
breadth of this country, within a few years past, on the subject 
what has been called " Spiritual Manifestations." One person 

* The above, I perceive, is quoted irom my work on Pathetisin, 
(1847,) in the 3d Vol. of The Great Harmonia, p. 102, without the 
marks of credit. And a similar remark might be made of other quota- 
tions on page 92, 93, 96, 101, 136. 



MENTAL CONTAGION. 187 

of a peculiar temperament (140, 141, 142,) sees another affect- 
ed, (as is allecred,) by " spirits." The idea is startling and 
impressive. Indeed, reading upon the subject, or hearing 
about it, will often impress the nervous system so powerfully, 
as to bring <5n all the phenomena of jerking; jumping, twitching, 
swooning, dancing, singing, speaking, writing, or whatever 
else may come within the range of an excited nervous organ- 
ism. In this manner, all mania, all excitements, mental or 
spiritual, devotional, combative, grave or gay, are to be account- 
ed for. In all these movements, there will be noticed often one 
central Idea, which is the germ of the whole, and from which 
all the lesser phenomena take their character. 

Mr. Powers* details the particulars of a family in Chelms- 
ford, Mass., where one of the children was affected with 
chorea, and five others exercised themselves in imitating his 
odd gestures, until every one of them was irresistibly affected 
in the same way. And the spell was not broken until the 
father, one day, brought in a block and axe, and sternly 
threatened to take off the head of the first child who shouXl 
exhibit any more of those singular gestures. 

Dr. Haygarth gives a similar account of the effects of sym- 
pathy, which took place in 1796, among some peasants in the 
Island of Anglesey. It commenced with one female, and in a 
short time extended to some twenty others. And a similar 
account is given by Rev. Mr. Archibald, of Unst.f He says, 
at first the affection commenced with a female ; but on her 
manifesting the affection at church, it was immediately com- 
municated to others. And in another parish, some sixty per- 
sons were seized in the same way ; and being carried out and 
laid in the yard, they would struggle and roar with all their 
might for five or ten minutes, and then rise up without re- 
membering anything that had happened to them. 

Affections of the same kind prevailed among the Anabap- 
tists in Germany, and the French Prophets in Dauphiny, and 
in England ; and after them the Quakers, and also among the 
Puritans of New England, in 1745, and more recently among 
the Methodists, Baptists, Presbyterians, and especially among 
the Mormons. Nor are these affections confined to Prot- 
estant sects ; they have been equally prevalent among the 
Papists, and, indeed, among those who are not religiously dis- 
posed. I have been informed of similar affections among the 
Mahometans. A gentleman who has been among them during 
seasons of prayer, states, that for some time he had seen some 
of them convulsed, and they would emit a kind of froth at the 

* Influence of the Imagination on the Nervous System. 
t Edinburgh Medical aiid Surgical Journal, vol.^3, p. 438. 



188 BOOK OF HUMAN NATURE. 

mouth. Those less favored, would take this from the mouths 
of their companions, and by rubbing it upon their own bodies, 
•would thus excite a similar state of feeling and action in 
themselves. 

That the affections above described, were communicated by 
the laws of sympathetic imitation, there can be no doubt. 
And it would be equally easy to show, that many diseases 
deemed contagious, had been communicated in the same way. 
The history of the Asiatic Cholera would as plainly demon- 
strate the truth of this position, as it would prove, that any 
such disease ever existed. And the same might be said of 
other diseases and affections, both mental and physical, which 
are frequently known to gain upon individuals, families, neigh- 
borhoods, and generally whole districts of country. Some- 
times an enormous crime will be committed; and its flagrancy 
excites a kind of susceptibility in the mind of another, and 
another, until it has been followed by a dozen or more of the 
same kind. 

A few years since a suicide was committed in Troy, N. Y., 
by hanging. One of the men who assisted in taking the corpse 
down, was noticed to place the rope, taken from the neck of 
the dead man, in his pocket; — nothing was thought of the cir- 
cumstance at the time. But, one year afterwards, that very 
man was found hung in the same place, and with that identical 
cord about his neck ! 

Religious and political excitements are always modified, 
directed and characterized by the mental faculties which they 
call into action. And, though they generally produce too 
much commotion to allow sufficient reflection to enable a dis- 
interested person to see how beautifully they illustrate the 
nature of the human mind, yet they do, nevertheless, furnish 
the data from which it would be an easy matter to show the 
truth of my assumptions with regard to it. (154.) 

1. That mental contagions are often originated, controlled, 
and characterized by the sphere of individuals, whether living 
or dead. How was it with John Calvin, John Wesley, George 
Fox, Ann Lee, and other " religious chieftains."" In each ex- 
citement we trace the lineaments of the features of the indivi- 
dual by whom it was started and carried on. The sphere of . 
each one may be distinctly seen, even centuries after the outer 
forms of those men or women have passed from our earth. 
And, is it not curious and wonderful indeed to see, how really 
many do live among us, even after they are said to be actually 
dead. 

2. That in those sympathetic, contagious movements of 
large masses of people, denominated religious, we always find 
in operation the laws of human nature, described in the pages 



MENTAL CONTAGION. 189 

of this book. True, it is, these movements are attributed 
directly to God, and He is often called upon to do certain 
things, as if their development did not depend at all upon the 
operation of the laws of the human mind. But, this tendency 
to attribute certain phenomena to remote and extraordinary 
causes, only shows the state of those minds in which it is 
manifested. I admit, that God does all that is done, always. 
But how is it brought about 1 Let the history of all mental 
contagions, i'rom immennorial time, answer this question. 

3. That all contagions, though purely mental at first, they 
enter into the sinuosities of human nature, and, seizing upon 
the nervous system, produce discord, disease, delusion, fantasy, 
and death. They are always the most rife and powerl'ul 
when ignorance of the nervous organism is the most prevalent. 
Indeed, ignorance of nature's laws, is the darkness in which 
these hideous forms have been known most to thrive. Hence, 
the duty of diffusing information among the masses. Study 
the laws of nature, and especially of human nature, and as you, 
yourself, become informed, you may enlighten others, and, in 
this way assist in the great work of progression. These 
sympathetic susceptibilities of our nature, which are liable to 
be thus perverted by ignorance, are the very excellencies, the 
laws, without which we could not progress at all, and could 
not be intelligent, benevolent beings. 

4. It is characteristic of those mental contagions which have 
most hindered the progression of the race, that they were 
originated by a false idea ; a misconception of God, or 
" spirit," the state of the spirits after deaih. Now, we have 
seen, (34, 35,) that God, and the condition of spirits out of the 
body, must be precisely what oilr thoughts or faith made them 
to us. And thus, it is, that men are and must be " impressed" 
by their own conceptions or ideas of things real or imaginary. 
If they believe themselves possessed or inspired, or controlled 
by an invisible spirit, real or fictitious, their nervous systems 
will yield, and they act accordingly. If the idea which has 
taken possession of the popular mind, appeal directly to mar- 
veloiTsness, it thereby acquires so much the more power. 
And if it completely conquers and controls one mind, the 
power of the idea is thus increased, and so it is augmented by 
the addition of one mind, one family, one neighborhood, one 
country after another, till it has with a force far exceeding 
that of the tornado, swept over the fairest portions of the gar- 
den of God ; carrying devastation, confusion, and evil in its 
relentless course. 



190 BOOK OF HUMAN NATUKE. 



Faiiaticism. 

195. All mental excitements carried to a certain ex- 
treme, or too long continued, end in fanaticism or insanity, 
or both. The importance of the subject seems to demand 
that we should notice more minutely, not merely those sub- 
jects which are more commonly pressed into these ex- 
tremes, but also all the constituent elements of which they 
seem to be composed. 

The fact, that from the earliest ages of the world, cer- 
tain persons have assumed to have actual, personal know- 
ledge of the spiritual sphere, is something towards good evi- 
dence to prove that the human mind is naturally ascending to- 
wards such a state of existence. But another fact connected 
with this subject is proof thdit many or most of these different 
persons have been deceived, because they have not agreed 
in their reports of one and the same thing. Some of the 
parties, we know, must have been dishonest in assuming 
what they knew to be false — and others, from the causes 
already described, (178) must have been hallucinated, — and 
hence they may have been sincere in their various accounts. 
The question to be decided here should be distinctly under- 
stood : — 

1. It is not whether there be a spiritual sphere or not, 
which is not accessible to the external senses. 

2. Not whether any principle or part of the human form be 
in a state of conscious existence after the body is dead. 

3. Not whether the human spirit may not at times, while 
connected with the body, become so far developed as to have 
intuitive knowledge of existing laws, by which it may foretell 
events which those laws will bring about. 

4. Nor whether the spirit, when thus developed, may not 
have intuitive knowledge of every law and every thing else, 
within the degree of its development. 

The question is this — When different accounts from differ- 
ent persons of one and the same thing do not agree, how are 
we to decide which to receive? The only satisfactory an«wer 
to this question I have already given. (100.) 

1. If the accounts when taken together do not agree, we 
cannot receive the whole. They mai/ all be false. 

2. If we find tiiat the reports of one person, or one class, do 
not agree with themselves, we cannot receive the reports of 
that person or class. 

3. If the reports of any one person or class do agree with 
themselves, we cannot receive them if they do not agree with 
what we know to be the laws of mind, (101) and the constitu- 
tibri of things. 



MENTAL CONTAGION. 191 

4. We cannot receive reports of another sphere of existence, 
as truthfully made, if the manner in which the knowledge is 
said to be obtained do not agree with what we know to be the 
facts in the case. Hence we cannot depend upon the reports 
which various minds have given of visions and communica- 
tions with the " spirit world." As we have seen, they may 
all be false ; or, if partly true, they may not be true in the 
manner in which they are said to have been developed. Minds 
may sometimes acquire knowledge without knowing how they 
acquire it, as all are more or less liable to be deceived who are 
not familiar with human nature. And hence it has been that 
so many have been deceived by the assumed visions of the 
Anabaptists, Shaking Quakers, Mormons, Spiritual Mediums, 
and others. Indeed, such visions have been common among 
certain classes of people from the earliest ages, and those 
have been the most deceived by them, especially among reli- 
gious sects, including the Papists and the Protestants, Jews, 
Greeks, and Mahommedans, where there has been the least 
knowledge of the nature and constitution of the human mind. 

Volumes have been filled with the history of these various 
forms of fanaticism, and which all should read who would be 
fully impressed with a sense of the lamentable extremes of de- 
lusion into which large masses of human beings may be often 
carried, even by very slight and remote causes. The Cru- 
sades, Alchemy, the French Prophets, and Mormonism, may 
be referred to as illustrative, on a large scale, of this suscep- 
tibility of the human mind to which reference is here made. 
Witchcraft was another. These were monstrous fanaticisms, 
so large and gigantic in their proportions, so powerful in the 
accumulation of means which they drew within their spheres, 
that we are apt to become bewildered and lost even in their 
contemplation. Combining materials so adverse and discord- 
ant, invoking so much of the false, devastating so much of so- 
cial harmony and domestic happiness, we scarcely know in 
what category of human misery to put these things, or how to 
estimate them consistently. 

However, the student of Human Nature cannot be very 
long at a loss how to account for these mysteries. He is 
accustomed to trace all the phenomena that occur to appro- 
priate and adequate cause, in the physical and mental worlds. 
He knows that where the human mind is wanting in harmony, 
where it is not fully developed, where there is the want of in- 
formation in respect to sympathy, marvelousness, and fear ; 
where there are exciting causes, and nothing to check hu- 
man credulity, such things may and must occur. And when 
they do come, when one of these whirlwinds of mental delu- 
sion sweep over any portions of the earthy they do not merely 



192 BOOK OF HUMAN NATURE. 

move and carry away the stubble that is dry ; they do nofe 
merely bend now and then a sapling that is young and ten- 
der ; but they sweep away the strong enclosures of the fields 
and gardens ; they unroof the dwellings of human beings ; 
they spread destruction, dismay and death, often, in their re- 
sistless course. 

So it is, men living in the midst of such fanaticism, of re- 
puted intelligence and strong minds, often resist them. They 
are disgusted and repelled at first. They do not believe the 
** idea " which has started and given the shape and color to 
the excitement. They hold out against it, oppose it, confute 
it, even, perhaps, many times, in private and in public. But 
this superior mind, this determined opposition, this " perse- 
cuting Saul of Tarsus," after repeated prayers on the part of 
tiie believers, is forced to yield. Indeed, if he were a vio- 
lent opposer, his conversion is so much the more likely, — as 
one extreme always leads to another. This is a law of the 
physical as it is of the moral world. It is your most violent 
opposer, your most '* hardened sinners," that are the most 
suddenly converted, and whose conversions afford occasions 
of the greatest joy. 

A superficial observer would judge differently ; he would 
suppose a mind so strong, so intelligent, a man so old, would 
know better, and could never be carried away by such an ex- 
citement. And, precisely so, all superficial persons always 
reason about other things. A profound philosopher never 
makes light of any form of real fanaticism. He never looks 
with indifference on those mysterious combinations of hidden 
causes that work in the mass, and by which these lamentable 
results are brought about. Or, perhaps, it were better to 
say, it is the ignorance that is lamentable, not the results — 
nor the laws of mind by \ which they come to pass. On the 
whole, it is best that we should have all these fanaticisms — 
best that we should have the human mind governed by its own 
laws. Certainly it is better to have mind, than to be without 
any mind. And if we have mind, it is best it should progress. 
So, to progress, it must begin low, or at a point from which 
progression is possible. It is, and must be best, then, that 
mind should act out its own nature, should show by its phe- 
nomena what it is, and what it may be. It maxj be a benefit 
to one mind, to see another mind deranged. By witnessing 
that condition, the causes that brought it on may be thus 
avoided. Let us understand, then, in what sense we say, 
things are for the best. If you put your hand in the fire, it is 
best you should be burned. It is best you-should be burned, 
because it is best you should suffer pain. It is best you should 
e'uflfef pkin» In 6rdet tb consierve ytnir organism arid life ; for, 



m:e:n^tal contagion. 193 

if you did not suffer, you might put your whole system into 
the fire, and be thus consumed. While, therefore, I should 
regret that you did not know better than to put your hand in 
the fire, I must not (as a philosopher regret that God's laws 
were obeyed in your being burned. As a philanthropist I re- 
gret these wide-spread delusions ; and as a philanthropist and 
a philosopher, I must most regret the ignorance which is the 
occasion of them all. True philosophy, therefore, especially 
mental philosophy, contemplates both the past and the future. 
It does not regret the past — it finds no fault with what has 
been, except the want of information, the want of progres- 
sion. How else should we know what Human Nature is I 
Its susceptibilities, its sympathies, its hopes and its fears 1 

Trait§ of Fauaiticisiii* 

198. If ignorance be, indeed, the evil, or the devil to ba 
overcome, then it were well, perhaps, to dwell upon this sub- 
ject sufficiently long, to enable us to have distinct perceptions 
of these considerations, which will most assist us in the great 
work of human progression. 

THE INVISIBLE. 

197. Reader ! Will you dare to follow me 1 Can you ven- 
ture here 1 It is not a nook, or corner of a dark house, or 
room, where you can be guided by the sense of feeling. 
Where we now proceed, neither sight nor feeling will serve 
you at all. Nay, here, the external sense of both feeling and 
sight are either anniliilated, or so completely reversed, that 
they serve only to mislead and confuse. It is no dark cellar, 
no gloomy cavern we enter, no haunted house, even. It is no 
distant part of our earth, no populous city, alive with com- 
merce, and the din of mechanism. Nor is it any wilderness, 
nor dismal swamp, where human beings have scarcely ever 
ventured before. Nor is it any one of the distant planets, pos- 
sible, though it might be, where we could ascend by a mere 
volition, or the motion of some magic wand. It is no by- 
place, no frightful thick wood, where most horrible murders 
have been perpetrated. Nor far off enchanted isle, where 
fairies dance and hymn the strains so enrapturing to human 
ears. Reader ! Is your heart strong ! Bold ! Courageous ! 
Then go with me. You need not leave your house ; nor your 
room, nor the seat where you are sitting ; you need not, no, 
you must not move from the very spot where you now find 
yourself spell bound by the words I am uttering. Once there, 
and " fairly into it," and you will have very little, or perhaps, 
iio Qs^ fbr your sense of sight, ritit for your hatiils, nor ychit 

9 



194 BOOK OF HUMAN NATUEE. 

feet, nor your sense of smell or taste, nor for your higher 
faculties of reason, penetration, and judgment. Indeed, the 
larger these faculties the worse it may be for the possessor, as 
you shall find in the sequel. 

Once "into it," and you will have no use for the most en- 
larged sphere of observation. No matter what you have 
learned, what you have seen, what you have felt and ex- 
perienced. No matter how old, the older the better, as the 
trial has sometimes proved. The stoutest hearis the strongest 
intellects, are often overpowered here, overwhelmed, wrecked, 
even, and shocked to their very inmost. Mere children are 
drawn in by the fitness of their organisms. Large fear, 
marvelousness, and love of the mysterious, the giddy youth, is 
not unfrequentiy drawn with such forces as he has neither in- 
clination or any power for resisting. When once in, ho turns 
pale, and trembles from head to feet. His eyes are blank, the 
mouth is open, the limbs hang down by his side. He stands, 
no, he does not stand, it is between standing and sitting, and 
there he remains while something is at work powerfully, with- 
in him, which sends out upon his face, and the contortion of 
his features and limbs, the signs of discord within. 

And now comes a youth of riper years, a young lady, well 
matured. Her cheeks bear the crimson blush of health ; her 
external appearance speaks of competency, and indicates a 
heart combining all that is graceful, beautiful, and kind. Her 
approaches were slow at first, but finally, the attraction be- 
comes too strong for her, and she found herself in the Invisible ! 
She is frightened, and agitated in her nervous system. Shall 
she retrace her steps 1 How, which way % All is dark and 
invisible. Her external senses, her judgment even, scarcely 
now serve her at all. Her caution and credulity are large. 
She is impelled forwards by an irresistible love of the hidden 
and obscure. So, finding she is not alone, but that multitudes^ 
are in the same place, she makes little or no efforts to return 
whence she came. 

The cases already contemplated entered the invisible solitary, 
It may have been, and alone. We now see them approaching 
in pairs. The wife follows, out of mere love to her husband ; 
and less common, the husband from conjugal love to his spouse. 
The number increases, and the parents and all the children are 
seen entering together. They do not all feel the same desire 
for the invisible, but they all love one another, and so neither 
will leave the others to go alone. 

And thus the sympathy extends from families to neighbor- 
hoods, to churches, and larger circles of community. One 
neighbor, influences another, and when he stands high and is 
looked up to for efilueoce, counsel, and direction, as all clergy^- 



• MENTAL CONTAGION. 195 

men are, the influence is so much the more extended. Hence, 
we see that Christian teacher, entering with most of his flock 
around him. Some of his followers do not feel much love for 
the invisible, but they do feel strong love and respect for tlieic 
pastor. Perhaps he has been persecuted and they love him 
on this account, or perhaps he has been the means of their 
" conversion," and this gives him a strong claim for confidence 
and affection. Or, it may be, he has attended at the sick bed 
of those who now follow him for " the good he has done." 

See, also, the political chieftain entering, surrounded by his 
circle. All have their satellites. All must attract more or 
less, by the inherent, ever present laws of mental and social 
sympathy. Hence, when the venerable patriarch enters, a 
very large number of others are sure to follow. And so many 
associated or attracted more or less with one common object, 
they aflford society and gratification for each other. In this 
manner, they beguile and deceive themselves ; for, though 
they may never fully realize the object of their pursuit, yet 
they may aflford each other consolation, and by their " pray- 
ers," their " hymns of praise," and other methods of religious 
recreation, they divert their own minds from the grief of dis- 
appointment, of which they might otherwise become most 
painfully conscious. In this manner we know the regions of 
invisibility have been peopled from the earliest ages of the 
world. 

To describe fully any of the myriad forms which have been 
found in this region, of all others so fruitful of forms, would 
scarcely comport with the object I now have in view. Nor is 
it necessary, perhaps, if we examine the portrait which has 
been drawn by " infallible inspiration," of one who we are 
assured reigns there supreme. 

Some six thousand years ago, he appeared in the form of a 
serpent, or as others say, in a baboon or monkey. But all are 
agreed, that he was (formerly, at least,) a most ugly and hate- 
ful looking devil. He even had a forked tail, that he whisked 
about as he walked ; one of his feet (supposing he had two,) 
was cloven ; and his head was ornamented with a pair of ap- 
propriate horns. His eyes, ugh ! were as large as common 
saucers, and such a mouth ! Ancient copies of the bible con- 
tain pictures of him, in which his protruding tongue and teeth 
look frightful enough. Corresponding with his external and 
horrible appearance, is the account that has been given us of 
his internals, or disposition. He possessed great power, and 
is said to have been the prince and power of the air ; so that he 
could raise hurricanes, and even cause earthquakes. He 
afflicted the patriarch Job with severe boils, and well nigh 
provoked him to curse God anii die* He was a m^ost malig- 



196 BOOK OF HUMAN NATURE. 

nant, mischievous, destructive, lying devil. Set on by the 
Hebrew Jehovah, scarcely more povi^erful than the devil him- 
self, he provoked David, a man after God's own heart, to 
number the people of Israel, for which, thousands of innocent, 
unoffending men, women and children were put to a most cruel 
and untimely death. He was called not merely a liar, but the 
father of lies, and represented as combining in his character 
the quintessence of all that was false, evil, dark, despotic, 
cruel, mischievous, destructive, discordant, itifernal, and devil- 
ish. This character he seems to have sustained for some two 
or three thousand years, maintaining this while a most suc- 
cessful competition in the exercise of his art and prowess, 
with the God of the Jews. And out of the Jewish nation, 
among the heathen, it is admitted that he was as much a God 
as any other ; indeed, he received more worship, and was 
believed to be equal, if not supreme among some thirty 
thousand deities that struggled for the mastery over the 
idolatrous nations of the East. 

As we come up towards the nineteenth century, however, 
we find the laws of eternal progression, or some other laws, 
have had a most decided effect, even on this " ugly old devil." 
For, whereas it was formerly customary for him to " ap- 
pear" to mortals, with his iron poker, and enveloped in sul- 
phureous flames, this of late years has been dispensed with, 
altogether. And when he now-a-days appears, as he does 
quite often, on Sunday in the pulpit, (in the sermon, of course) 
he is not that horrible monster he was formerly taken for. 
Now he comes more in the garb of a gentleman, a decent- 
looking sort of a personage, walking to church, perhaps, with 
the psalm-book in his hand, arm-in-arm with the pious deacon. 
Nay, he is now known to carry his skill so far as to appear in 
black, in the pulpit on Sunday, and is said to have been heard 
to preach even like an angel. But, dressed up ever so finely, 
and disguised as he may be, still he is the devil, the arch foe 
of God and man, the tempter of our first parents, the torment- 
or of God's elect, whom he in vain seeks to seduce and de- 
vour. Nay, he never excels so much in his black art as when 
he deceives, as he has the power to do, in respect to his own 
personal existence. Hence it becomes necessary for us to 
enter the invisible in order to see him. For here, we may 
see not one, but ten, or ten thousand. Here is all, and more 
than prophets ever wrote, or poets ever sung ; more than the 
most prolific pen ever yet had the inspiration to describe. 
Here, ascend the flames of sulphureous fire, in which the 
souls of God-made men, women and children, are to be cooked 
eternally. Yes, children not a span long, whose little skulls 
have been said tb pave the bottom of this bottomless pit. 



MENTAL CONTAGION. 197 

***** 
These, then, are the regions of hell, and the damned. From 
this place the smoke of their torment ascends upward for ever 
and ever. Here is pain, here is sorrow, here is vi^eeping and 
wailing, and gnashing of teeth. Here is despair and an- 
guish, for describing which the language has not yet been in- 
vented. Here they curse God, and wickedly blaspheme. 

In this invisible gloom and murky darkness, evil, or the de- 
vil, that '■' old upy devil," reigns without a rival. Here is 
EVIL, absolute and eternal ; evil unmixed with good ; grief 
without any particle of joy ; where. Hope never comes, though 
it were once thought to come to all, and to spring eternal in 
the human breast. God and good are not here. 

The lost and damned are here ; here to suffer the mistakes 
of a life-time ; here to endure, without the most distant pros- 
pect of relief or mitigation, the consequences of unrepented 
sin. ft is of no spiritual or real use now, whether God were 
born of a woman or not. whether he did or did not make an 
atonement. Nay, 'tis worse than useless, worse than if God 
had not been so born, and *' made a full, perfect, and all-suffi- 
cient satisfaction to himself for the sins of the whole world." 
That he did so, now only adds to the fierceness of these sul- 
phureous flames. The Sundays, and the Sunday preaching, 
the instructions of the Sunday school, the admonitions and all 
the privileges of the sanctuary, now turn upon these hope- 
less victims of eternal despair, and augment the cup of their 
sorrow. The good example of parents, all the kind words of 
brothers and sisters, are now turned into bitterness worse 
than gall, and add inconceivable weight to the guilt which now 
becomes the worm that never dies. All the opportunities, 
once enjoyed for mental culture, all those genial influences 
which were once believed to be favorable for the development 
of the God-given nature, are now so many mill-stones hung 
around the sinner's neck, to sink him deeper in the depths of 
perdition. He is weighed in the balances of his Maker, and 
found wanting — wanting in love to God, wanting in saving 
faith in one, perhaps, of whom he never had any correct in- 
formation even, till now. All those books which were read 
and studied for useful information, all those Lectures on Sci- 
ence, and other means used for human improvement, not be- 
ing "• mixed with saving faith," now become so many aggra- 
vating causes of more poignant anguish. That I was born, 
says one, in a Christian land I educated among Christian peo- 
ple, had good neighbors, a kind father, tender and loving mo- 
ther — these are the sources now, to me, of insufferable pain. 
That I had the Bible, and commentaries upon it, to read, be- 
sides any quantity of religious books. Had I been born a hea- 



198 BOOK OF HUMAN NATURE. 

then — had I lived where the sound of the church-going bell 
was never heard, where no religious privileges are enjoyed, 
where the name of God and of Christ are never heard — in 
that case my misery might have been comparatively light. 
But now, I find the more that is done for the sinner's eleva- 
tion, the more prayer that is made for him, the more the Spi- 
rit of God strives with him, the hotter his hell becomes. 

And then, add to all this, that there is no escape. No ray 
of hope, no salvation, no progression, no relief, no mitigation, 
here. No, nothing to which we apply the terms of meek- 
ness, gentleness, or love ; nothing we call pleasant, agreea- 
ble, cheerful, happy. O, nothing, nothing of this. All is 
bitter regret, all evil, all malignity and hate ; all is vindictive 
here, and this forever, and forever, and forever. 

" Great God ! when I have wept a thousand lives away, 
When torment has grown weary of its prey, 
When I have raved a thousand years in fire, 
Ten thousand thousand, let me then expire!" 

And here I pause. Reader, what do you say ? Do you 
love the invisible 1 The invisible, I mean, of ignorance? — 
that phantom of undeveloped minds, that region where fes- 
ters delusive fanaticism, and jargon without end ? Remem- 
ber, mortal, you enter that region at your peril. It is not 
every one that has the power to retrace their hasty steps and 
return again. The bones of many mighty men are strewed by 
the way-side, monuments of their folly, and adding solemn 
admonition to all who follow. You will find these monuments 
in the history of all wars, all revivals of religion, so called ; all 
popular excitements; all stories about witchcraft and "spi- 
rits," and sacred writings " communicated by angels," written 
on plates and hidden in the ground, and the like ; all of which 
come from the "invisible," where the devil lives, and where 
delusions and fanaticisms without number are manufactured, 
to suit the taste and wishes of all who enter those doleful 
shades. 

THE UNKNOWN. 

198. Under this head I must describe the cognate idea of 
the invisible. Fanaticism, like the human mind in which it 
finds a lodgment, is dependent upon the sexuality, or at least 
the duality of error, for its existence. If we enter the regions 
of invisibility, it is in search after the unknown. The love 
element is excited, it wants something. What that something 
is, or may be, will depend upon the degrees in which the 
wisdom or knowing element has been harmoniously developed. 
The difli'erence, in men, is not in the act of loving, or the fact 
of wishing for information, but ia the degree of altitude by 



MENTAL CONTAGION. -" 1^ 

which their desires are to be measured. The lower down we 
go in this scale, the less we shall find that is known, or the 
more that is not known. Hence it becomes a characteristic 
trait of fanaticism, that its victims are not only wanting in in- 
formation in respect to the principal object of pursuit, but this 
is confessed in their actions and forms of devotion. Listen, 
and you will hear this frankly confessed in forms of vocal 
prayer. Observe what is usually said to the Omniscient : 

" O God, as I perceive and feel in my soul that thou hast 
no knowledge of my wants, therefore I presume to come into 
thy presence in order to make them known to thee. I have 
faith, or would have, if I have it not, that I can persuade 
God to suspend his laws, to alter the course of nature, and to 
do many things he never would do, perhaps he never would 
think of doing, if I did not put him in mind of them. I am 
suspicious and fearful that, upon the whole, matters and things 
will not come out right, in the end. I am a guilty sinner, 
having acted out a nature that God never gave me, and where 
I got it from I do not know. But, for acting out that nature, 
I know I deserve thy curse and everlasting displeasure. And 

God, hadst thou been just, to punish iniquity as it deserves, 
and ought always to be punished, I should have been lifting 
up my eyes in torment long ago, without a drop of water to 
cool my parched tongue. And, so I thank thee, in that thou 
hast not executed the penalty of thy just and righteous laws 
on me, and so I have escaped what 1 ought to have endured 
at the hands of the just and holy God. 

" And, Lord, I beseech thee, do for all other men what 
thou hast so mercifully done for me. Suspend the just and. 
appropriate influences of thy eternal laws over them. Do not, 

1 entreat thee, suffer all thy lavi's to have their natural, uni- 
versal, invariable effects, on those who transgress them. Re • 
verse the order of nature in thy moral government over men 
Let thy mercy triumph over thy justice, because if justice 
prevail, and God execute the legitimate consequences of all 
actions upon those who perforni them, it will make me very 
unhappy." 

Reader, this is no caricature, no misrepresentation or fanci- 
ful picture. The prayers like the above are sober realities, 
uttered by vast multitudes of people, as all must and will pray, 
who are more or less in the invisible, and in search of the un- 
known. 

The Invisibles. 
199. Not the invisible world, but invisible personalities 
with whom mortals tell us they have intercourse. We ask 



200 BOOK OF HUMAN NATURE. 

who they are ? but the answer, when candidly and truthfully 
given, comes back, unknown I We do not know. I do not 
now, speak of faith or credulity. Mortals may be made as 
we have shown, to believe any thing or nothing. A " me- 
dium" tells me he is magnetised (why not call it spiritualised 1) 
by an invisible spirit. I admit what he says, and ask who is 
that invisible? The answer is, unknown! Or, suppose he 
tell me it is Dr. Franklin. I ask again, how does this ap- 
pear ? And the answer be sure is, that the personality is not 
known. 

How much we often hear preached and sung about " the 
Holy Spirit," who is said to take up his abode in the hearts 
of Christian believers. This holy spirit does marvelous 
things. It convinces of sin, that is, makes manifest some im- 
perfection or discord in the moral government of God ; it 
changes the sinner's heart, though the sinner is told, and even 
said to do this himself. It is an invisible personality, and 
undefinable somebody, or something of whose real presence 
the believer becomes as conscious and as well satisfied as he 
could be of any thing which he cannot see. In all forms of 
religion, and in ail cases of real fanaticism, this invisible holds 
a distinguished place. He carries on the work of sanctifica- 
tion, he is the comforter, the omnipresent indweller of all the 
faithful. A deed is attributed to it in the days of Joseph and 
Mary, that far exceeds any and all the " spiritual knockings" 
we hear of in these times. And were any of the invisibles of 
the present day to pretend to any thing of the kind now ; or, 
indeed, were " the holy spirit" to repeat that act in any part 
of the universe, it is more than doubtful, whether even those 
who believe so much in its power in past ages, would consent 
to it. They would not admit that it has quite so much power 
now, or that mortals would be worthy of much attention who 
even pretended to believe in it. 

A number of Christian sects of the present age, as some 
have for years past, make much of alleged communications 
and "revelations," which they say, they have from "angels." 
We ask what angels 1 but they cannot tell, only they are sure 
they came from the angels ! Their personalities are not, and 
cannot be known. One, it may be, I am told, is " the angel of 
mercy," or the " angel of destruction," or the " angel of wis- 
dom," " angel of power," " angel of justice," and the like ; or, 
that it is " Adam," " Eve," " Isaiah," " Jeremiah," or " one 
of the prophets." All " invisibles" truly, and equally un- 
known. So a medium by some suggestion, or the laws of 
sympathetic imitation, it may be, falls into a state of trance 
more or less profound, and he tells me it was done by a 
spirit out of the human body. That may be, perhaps. But, 



MENTAL CONTAGION. 201 

was it brought about in this manner ? The answer is, we do 
not know, and in the nature of the case, it cannot be known. 

Another medium writes a piece of poetry or a book, and 
publishes it to the world, as the unmixed, veritable production 
of an invisible departed spirit. But, suppose we do believe it 
spirits. Can you prove that your own mind, your own ner- 
vous organism had nothing to do with that production 1 
Nothing? And if you cannot prove that your own brains 
(perhaps, unconsciously to yourself) had nothing to do in pro- 
ducing that literary composition, how can you. how dare you 
say that it was wholly the work of a departed spirit? Is it 
not manifest that we open the door for unnumbered fanaticisms, 
when we base our statements on the unknown in this man- 
ner 1 If it be really unknown, then we may not undertake to 
say how it is, except that we do not know ; it is unknown. 
Something strange, perhaps, and unaccountable has happened, 
or coming out of or through the nervous system of a certain 
person. Now, as long as we do not know the remote cause, 
is it not fanaticism or very near it to put the names of Dr. 
Franklin, Dr. Channing, or Swedenborg to such productions 1 

This searching for the unknown, and depending upon the 
invisibles for what mortals say and do, opens a wide door for 
phantasy and the rankest delusion. We see persons in public 
and private, shut up their eyes, and make certain unmeaning 
gesticulations. We ask them for the cause, and they tell 
us they do not know. We ask for the motive, and it is equally 
unknown. Certain " mysterious sounds" are made. The 
family where they occurred, were alarmed, they did not 
know the cause. At intervals for some days these " sounds" 
were repeated. No mortal knew how they were made, nor 
why. In the process of time they are heard in other locali- 
ties, till they finally spread all over the land, and a medium 
has even carried them to the metropolis, we are told, of aris- 
tocracy on the other side of the broad Atlantic. They have 
been repeated there ; and some persons of literary and 
scientific distinction have been attracted by them, and there, 
as here, books are published " about and about" it. What is 
it — unknown! Who makes those " sounds ?" Unknown! 

Many mysterious and marvelous phenomena take place in 
connection with these "sounds. ' Heavy physical bodies are 
made to move without any known cause. The cause and the 
motive are not known. And, see what phantasies, what de- 
lusions, what forms of fanaticism have followed, and are likely 
to follow in the wake of these things. These fanaticisms, 
mdeed, flow out from the union of the two distinguished per- 
sonages already described, the Invisible and the Unknown. 
They are a fruitful pair, and have done much in making thq 
9* 



202 BOOK OF HUMAN NATURE. 

ground over which the laws of association, progression and 
development are yet to carry forward the human race. 

Symptomatic. 

200. If the source of all fanaticisms be the invisible and the 
unknown, then we should expect to find all the phenomena, all 
the views and feelings of certain circles infected with the same 
disease, characterized by precisely the same traits. So it is in 
Pathology. An allowance is always made for the age, diete- 
tic habits, and idiosyncrasy of the patient. But yet, in all 
diseases of the same type, there are well known symptoms, by 
which they may be known ; traits, not merely for detecting the 
disease in any given case, but which enable us to identify, and 
classify it with others of the same kind. Now if we examine 
any age of fanaticism, the world over, we shall find among 
others, tbe following symptoms, manifesting themselves, more 
or less, always : — 

I. Certain nervous phenomena. I have witnessed, perhaps, 
all that I find recorded in any of the books, such as laughing, 
crying, barking like a dog ; jumping like frogs ; swimming like 
fish ; singing, praying, shouting, groaning ; winking, squinting ; 
sighing, swooning, falling down, kicking, sawing the air with 
the arms. Falling into a state of coma, with the eyes open or 
shut ; shaking, quaking, dancing, leaping, jerking, and twitch- 
ing the hands and muscles of the body. Lying down, rolling, 
and tumbling upon the ground or floor : leaping, running, em- 
bracing one another, striking one another, and smiting the 
table, the bible, or the benches ; grating and gnashing the teeth, 
vomiting, grinning, wheezing, coughing. All these and more, 
I have witnessed. Sometimes the phenoniena became some- 
what complicated and mixed. One person rises in a circle, or 
public meeting, and speaks in a peculiar unnatural manner and 
tone. Another walks around the room putting his or her hand 
on the heads of different individuals. And by putting the 
hands upon the head of a person, closing up the eyes, and 
uttering a few appropriate words, he is said to be '" ordained 
by the spirits," and set apart for a peculiar mission or work. 
Who the " spirits" are, out of the mortals concerned in these 
things, is unknown. At another time, a dozen or more engage 
in vocal prayer, and all at the same time, pour forth their 
desires to God. When certain persons are seen to shake or 
whirl their hands over a piece of paper, continued at times for 
half an hour or more, it is said to be the work of spirits. At 
another time certain mediums are noticed to act strangely, and 
yoij scarcely know what can be the matter. But you are 
finally told, that they are possessed by some distinguished 
spirit, " Oceola," Napoleon Bonaparte, or some other invisible, 



' MENTAL CONTAGION-. 203 

who is speaking through them. And then follows any amount 
of" gibberish vviiich no one can understand ; or perhaps, the 
niedium speaks in a strain of impassioned eloquence, to be ac- 
counted for only by supposing his brains to be abnormally 
excited. 

2. Certain peculiar notions. Multitudes of people can be of 
'* like faith," they can tliink alike on any or all subjects with- 
out fanaticism. Bat it is peculiar to the lower forms of 
delusion to lay great stress upon certain characteristic views 
of the invisible and the unknown. Views in respect to those 
things which no mortal can prove, perhaps, and for a difference 
of opinion on these matters, what cruel persecutions have been 
waged in ages past. These notions are, and can be of no very 
great importance, at least they are not worth fighting about, 
nor need mortals make fools of themselves on their account^ 
whether they be true or false. 

What bickerings, what bitter controversies have distracted 
nations, in respect to a few grains of dough made into a wafer, 
and called the body of a person, who died eighteen hundred 
years ago ! And what relentless wars have torn and lacerated 
the peace of nations growing out of the dogma in respect to 
the trinity or something equally absurd. How sadly have the 
great laws of God and Nature, those eternal pillars of his uni- 
verse, which conserve and develop the race, been overlooked 
in all these strifes of mere fanaticism. What great truth have 
they ever developed, except indeed, it be their want of pro- 
gression. But what important transcendent law or principle 
of nature, has ever engrossed the attention of those ages 
carried away by the fanaticisms to which reference has been 
made. When, indeed, we consider the great work to be done, 
tlie adaptedness, and fulness of the means by which it is to be 
accomplished in hasting forward the progression of the race, 
it becomes marvellous how persons, so near to manhood, should 
be so much carried away with the invisible and unknown, 
taken up and busied with notions of comparative insignificance, 
whether they be true or false. 

3. Certain cant phrases. " A bird is known by its note, 
and a man by his talk." These phrases may be divided into 
two classes ; first, those common to a circle, church, or sect, 
growing out of its creed, or which may have come into use 
incidentally. Such there are, which are continued down from 
preceding ages, and becoming stereotyped in the usages of 
the party, they cannot be altered or dispensed with. 

Tlie other class are peculiar to individuals, the usus loquendt 
of individual mediums, who tell us they are inspired, and write 
or speak, not of themselves, but " the spirits write and speak 
through them." I have examined some fifty pamphlets and 



204 BOOK OF HUMAN NATURE. 

books written by this class, all alleged to be the veritable 
productions, not indeed, of the mediums who uttered or wrote 
them, but of some four or five hundred spirits out of the human 
body. On looking into these productions, we soon perceive 
what must be manifest to the most superficial observer, that all 
that comes through any one medium, whether purporting to be 
from two or two hundred diiferent spirits, they one and all, 
fall into the use of certain cant phrases ; such as " I feel it a 
privilege,^'' " bless God for this privilege^^'' " I am thankful 
for this privilege.'''' Such language may pass among sectarian 
mortals, as we often hear such terms used, but to put this lingo 
into the mouths of the spirits of George Washington, Voltaire, 
Bonaparte, and Andrew Jackson, is scarcely allowable, per- 
haps if we bear in mind that these worthies never used such 
language when on this earth, and they are not here to be ex- 
amined as to whether they have indeed, deteriorated so much 
as to use it now. 

And the same remark will apply to all the writings I have 
read, purporting to come from different spirits through the 
same medium. They all bear unmistakable marks of the same 
origin, all commit the same errors in grammar ; all use the 
same style ; and all come down to the same level, in the use of 
certain peculiar terms, many of them v/ithout much sense, if 
indeed, it be possible to tell whether they contain any sense at 
all. These marks, though not sufficient to prove that spirits 
had nothing to do with these productions, they do prove, be- 
yond all doubt, that not more than one spirit could well be 
concerned in uttering productions so very much alike. 

Miracles. 

201. A miracle has been defined as being a suspension of 
the laws of nature, something done in opposition to the estab- 
lished laws of the universe. The sacred writings of all 
nations, contain accounts of what are called miracles, and 
those detailed in the Jewish scriptures, are believed by many 
to be really miracles in the above defined sense. With a few 
exceptions, (perhaps already sufficiently accounted for, under 
the head of fanaticism) we can readily admit that most of the 
alleged miracles in the Bible, as indeed most that are detailed 
in the legends of popery, did really take place ; because phe- 
nomena equally miraculous are taking place at the present 
time, and they have often occurred under my own observation. 
The lame have been made to walk ; the deaf have been made 
to hear ; and the blind have been caused to see, without any 
super-human power. All this I know, because I, myself, 
have done these things, many times. Hence I can perceive 
how results like these may have been brought about vvhea the 



MENTAL CONTAGIOK. 205 

hands of a priest have been laid on the patient, or whe-n the 
invalid has been engaged in prayer, in the exercise of strong 
faith and hope. (101.) 

That the so called " miracles," among the Papists, Mormons 
and others, (whenever any real cures have been brought 
about,) were produced by impressions made upon the nutritive 
fluid, through the mind of the patient, or through one of the 
external senses, at least, is beyond all doubt. (118, 131.) 
Indeed, why should I believe that cures are performed by 
miraculous power or medicinal drugs, even, when they occur 
under religious associations, and by some other power, when 
they are brought about by Pathetism 1 In tliis way I have 
cured cases of Ticdouloureux, Amaurosis, Spasms, Neuralgia, 
Chorea, Rheumatism, Sick Headache, Paralysis, Insanity, 
Cholera Morbus, Stammering, Epilepsy, Monomania, Deaf- 
ness, Fits, Hysteria, Loss of Voice, Hypochondria, Toothache, 
Want of Sleep, St. Vitus' Dance, and Blindness, besides 
numerous Congenital Difficulties, and bad habits, such as the 
use of Tea, Coffee, Tobacco, and Intoxicating drinks.* 

Say you, these results were produced by supernatural 
power 1 How does this appear 1 True, they were miraculous, 
just as really as if they had come to pass by touching the 
bones, or visiting the grave of a dead saint. But, then, as I 
have shown, we have no occasion for referring such results to 
supernatural power, as long as we know what the laws of the 
nervous system are, by which these, and all similar phenomena 
have been produced. 

To be able to account satisfactorily for many of the 
" strange noises," and " sights," so called, such as have 
usually been considered ** supernatural," we have only to 
study the laws of marvelousness, faith, and sympathy, and all 
is plain. (153, 154.) 

The "miraculous case of Mary Jobson," of England, as it 
is called, " The Entranced Female," and the " Virgins of the 
Tyrol," have nothing really miraculous in them. The account 
published of Mary Jobson, by Dr. Clanny, shows that her 
brains were diseased, for it declares that she " often com- 
plained of pain in her head," when it was so tender that she 
could not " bear to have it touched." And such cases of 
cerebral derangement are published to the world by gentlemen 
of the Medical Faculty and ministers of the Christian religion, 
as " miraculous !" attestations of the truth of popery ! 

How much of the real " spiritual" may enter into certain 
cures said to be done by spirits out of the body, it will be in 

* The reader will find ample details of this kind of miracles in the 
author's *.' Book of Psychology," already referred to, , 



206 BOOK OF HUMAN NATURE. 

time for us to believe when the alleged spirits in those cases 
have proved their identity or separate existence from the 
human. It is a settled maxim of sound philosophy that we 
should never attribute phenomena that occur to remote and 
extraordinary causes, when they may with equal propriety be 
referred to causes which obviously exist, and the results of 
which we daily observe. And, hence, as long as we know 
that the nervous system is powerfully impressed by an idea, 
even so as to induce fits, insanity, disease, and even death, 
(131,) we need not be referred to "spirits" as the sole 
cause of any changes that may occur in that organism. Let 
the cure be effected without the knowledge or any previous 
hope, or thought of it in the mind of the mortal on whom it is 
performed. If, for instance, an invalid were to wake up in 
the morning perfectly well and cured of amaurosis,* without 
his ever having heard or thought of such an instantaneous 
cure ; and then, " spirits" should demonstrate themselves as 
the performers of it, that would look something like a miracle 
in the popular sense of this term. But, then, all this might 
come to pass according to the well defined laws of the ner- 
vous system ; and that which is brought about by the estab- 
lished laws of the universe is not a miracle. The presump- , 
tion is, therefore, if we can now produce the like of a large 
majority of what are called miracles in all the sacred books 
of the different nations of the earth, it is not unreasonable to 
infer that those writings may contain a few details of things 
either that never did occur, or, if some strange phenomena 
did take place which gave rise to the account, they did not 
occur in the precise manner stated. Thus of the alleged 
translation of Elijah; the causing of the sun and moon to 
stand still, or cease their, functions ; and the conception of 
Jesus without any mortal father. Did such events ever come 
to pass in the manner alleged % , 

1. It must be observed, then, that if the Deity suspended 
his own laws for bringing about these events, his system was 
imperfect, not only because it did not provide for these results, 
supposing them to be necessary ; but also, because it would 
alh)w of such an interference with its laws. Now, to suppose 
that God's system was not perfect, that it did not contain all 
the laws necessary for carrying out the design of its Author, 
(9) is to suppose that the Deity was himself imperfect. Like 
causes produce like results. How could the Author of the 
universe, who was infinite, absolute in his goodness, power, 
and intelligence, how could such a Being develop an imperfect 



* Vide " Book of rsycliology," p. 104. 



■ MIRACLES. 207 

system 1 If he was perfect, so must all His laws be perfect ; 
all His kingdoms, all His Universe, all, and singular, no law 
wanting. And, which do we imagine must be the most con- 
sistent with the Infinite Author, to work by and in agreement 
with his own laws, or against, and in despite of them ? 

Does not the harmonious, truthful mind revolt at this idea 
of God's violating his own laws J Shall we be told that he 
had a right to do as he pleased 1 The question here, is not, 
as to what he had a right to do ; but what did he do 1 We 
say he did not suspend or contravene his own laws ? How 
could he do this, and then punish his creatures for violating 
his laws 1 

Nor is this all. If the system of nature were really imper- 
fect, as this assumption implies, then it must finally and total- 
ly fail. We cannot anticipate eternal durability for that which 
contains within itself one imperfection so fatal as that of defi- 
ciency in principles or law. And, in this fatal sense, the 
universe and Human Nature was defective, as it came from 
the hands of its Author, if it did not contain all the laws, or 
all the elements of laws for working miracles, such as are 
now under notice. . 

2. This view of miracles, and the suspension or violation 
of laws by their Author, unfit the Deity as an object of Trust, 
Hope, and Worship. How can I trust in a God who did not 
know how to make a perfect universe 1 How can I risk my 
all in the hands of one, who sometimes finds himself under 
the necessity of suspending his own laws ? He may, per- 
haps, suspend them, and annihilate me. The Religious ele- 
ment in me, wants an object of worship that is absolutely per- 
fect, infinitely intelligent, and good. One who neither lacks 
the Love to will all good, nor the Power to use the most ap- 
propriate means pointed out by Supreme Wisdom, for accom- 
plishing the greatest amount of good in all and for all. He 
violates no law, nor indeed does he suffer a pebble or a human 
being to do this, without inflicting an appropriate and just 
punishment as the penalty. 

3. The universe, or the system of nature, nowhere presents 
any evidence of any such defection or imperfection as the tra- 
ditional dogma of miracles supposes, nor does it call for any 
such interference with its established laws. In this perfect 
and beautiful system the Divine Father has provided, the 
great sun in the centre, around which xevolve this earth, the 
moon, and other planets, with such mathematical exactness, 
that if one of the million of shining worlds above us were to 
vary in its revolutions a second of time, or to shorten or ex- 
tend their motions even the length of a barleycorn, the shock 
would be felt throughout the universe, and the entire system 



208 BOOK OF HUMAN NATURE. 

of nature be thrown into interminable confusion as the result. 
No marvel, therefore, that the different commentators on the 
Jewish Scriptures should have labored so incessantly for many- 
centuries to give some explanation to Joshua's command to 
the sun and moon, which should harmonize with the well- 
known and indisputable laws of astronomy. And were they 
to accept the explanation of this miracle said to have been re- 
cently given by a "departed spirit," (through one of the Spi- 
ritual Mediums, of whom I shall have more to say, in the se- 
quel,) it would be a better one, it seems to me, than that 
of the common notion. The explanation was to this eflfect : 
that the armies of Israel carried two banners, on which there 
were pictures of the sun and the moon, and in the impassioned 
language of the occasion, the Jewish Chieftain addressed the 
standards of his nation, instead of the soldiers who were fight- 
ing under them. A solution far more reasonable, certainly, 
than many others I have read. 

We have seen that the progression of the Race is provided 
for in the alternations of nature, by which we have summer 
and winter, life and death. The design, in the growth of a 
plant, is not perfected till the outer form of the plant is dead. 
Hence it is evident that nature's laws can never be so inter- 
rupted as to prevent or supersede that transition we call death. 
To do this would be discord in the course of nature. It would 
be the death or dissolution of the entire systenn of nature 
itself. This God could not, would not do Why, then, 
should we be told that a certain man, " long, long ago," (189) 
passed into the spiritual world, with his outer form upon 
him ? Why, but that tradition in matters of religious belief, 
is supreme authority with those who affirm this strange and 
absurd dogma. 

There was, there could be, but one way for the vegetable 
kingdom to be born ; but one way for the animal kingdom to 
be born ; but one way for the Human Race to come into be- 
ing ; and once in being, all the individuals of that race must 
be born in the same way. To imagine a man born without 
any mortal for his natural father, we must go into the " invis- 
ible," and bow down to the "unknown." Nature repudiates 
this doctrine ; God does not own it. All analogy is opposed 
to it. 

But it may be said here, that perhaps Jesus was born with- 
out any natural father, and it was " on this wise." As the 
vegetable kingdom was born from the mineral, by the Divine 
Influx, superadded to the mineral, or superinduced in it, with- 
out which impregnation of the mineral kingdom by the Divine, 
no higher forms, or vegetable kingdom, could or would have 
been born. And thus, it is assumed, was the animal king- 



MIRACLES. 209 

dom begotten by the Divine, who impregnated the vegetable 
kingdom ; thus the Human came up from tlie Animal, by the 
Divine impregnation of the latter. And, then it is inferred, 
that an individual of the Human, was, in like manner, impreg- 
nated by the Divine, for the Form, in which the Impregnator 
would himself be born and appear! But I hope it may not 
be considered blasphemy to call this an insane, absurd idea. 
And is it not plain, that the whole of this circumlocution goes 
on the assumption already refuted, that God's system of na- 
ture was imperfect. It assumes that the Deity had no ade- 
quate design in the beginning. He first developed a mineral 
world ; but it contemplated nothing above mere mineral 
forms! Hence he had to add something else, from himself 
into it, in order to cause it to bring forth a vegetable ! And, 
when he formed a vegetable kingdom, he had to add something 
to that, above even the first formation of that kingdom or the 
one below it ; if he had not made the addition to the vegeta- 
ble kingdom, there could have been no animals born. And so 
upwards. The idea is absurd, and discordant with' what we 
know to be the universal, independent, and unvarying laws 
of Nature, and the eternal God. 

Even the Jews declared that God's work was perfect. And 
we have only to form a just conception of this fact, to per- 
ceive how preposterous that notion is, which carries us so far 
into the invisible and unknown, that we imagine such vast and 
appalling defection in the system which has Infinite Intelli- 
gence for its Author. A defection, with a vengeance, that 
must have been, which rendered it absolutely necessary for 
the Author of Nature to beget himself, conceive himself, and 
born himself, (what else shall we call it) contrary to the es- 
tablished laws of the universe in respect to male and female, 
which he himself had ordained. Nor is it possible to compre- 
hend what real virtue there could have been in the birth of 
Jesus, even admitting that he had no mortal father. God is 
really the Divine Father of all men, as he is the Author of 
the whole system of Nature. What virtue can there be in 
the mere birth of any one 1 

The dogma in respect to the resurrection of the dead body 
of Jesus, was unquestionably first originated and formed in 
that region of invisibility in which the potent unknown operat- 
ed for its production. Between the period when the alleged 
event took place, and the accounts that were written and pub- 
lished of it, many years elapsed. And, we have noticed, that 
in all such stupendous, miraculous events, they must occur 
many years before they are heard of. (189 ) It is long after 
the thing is said to have been done, that it is told for the first 
time. And when the accounts of it are published, we know 



210 BOOK OF HUMAN NATURE. 

too well how much relig-ious credulity, ignorance of Nature's 
laws, and marvelousness, must have to do, in cases where 
God's invariable laws are suspended, and a dead carcase is 
raised and reanimated again with life. 

Witclicrafft. 

202. We now approach a feature of our general subject of 
surpassing interest, but which, it is hoped, we may not find it 
very difficult to comprehend, if what is said upon mental con- 
tagion and fanaticism be attentively borne in mind. What 
horrible deeds have been chronicled under the name of witch- 
craft ? And mixed up as those accounts unquestionably are, 
with a vast amount of fabulous matter, it must be admitted that 
many occurrences did certainly partake largely of the marvel- 
ous if not of the spiritual. And, may we not hope that the 
time is now approaching, when a consistent solution is to be 
given to all those perplexing mysteries, which, two hundred 
years ago, struck so much terror into the hearts of all. 

In the' year 1515, five hundred witches were burned at 
Geneva, in the course of three months ; and in one year, one 
thousand were executed in the diocess of Como. It is be- 
lieved that in Germany alone, not less than one hundred 
thousand victims suffered death from this cause, in the 16th 
and 17th centuries. In England, witchcraft was held in great 
abhorrence, and in the course of one hundred and fifty years, 
no less than thirty thousand persons suffered death for suspi- 
cion of witchcraft ; and some of these poor wretches were 
condemned by Sir Matthew Hale, a man universally renowned 
on the strength of his understanding and the purity of his, cha- 
racter. And it is said that the last person condemned by him, 
for this crime, happened to be a woman, the daughter of an Inn- 
keeper, where he had stopped some twenty years before. She 
was then a girl and subject to fits. Hale made a " charm" of 
some pieces of paper he carried in his pocket which he directed 
her to wear. She did so, and was cured! Twenty years 
afterwards she was found with that same " charm" or talisman 
about her person, and for this cause was suspected, accused, 
arrested, and tried as a witch; and upon her trial Sir Matthew 
Hale found upon her the identical amulet he had given her 
twenty years before ! I have now before me numerous 
pamphlets giving accounts of those times; and containing 
pictures of old women accompanied with a cat. In one of 
them we are told that in 1706, a Mrs. Hicks and her daughter, 
a child nine years of age, were hanged at Huntingdon, for 
selling their souls to Satan, tormenting and destroying their 
neighbors by making them vomit pins, and raising a storm so 
that a ship was almost lost, which storm, it seems, was raised 



WITCHCRAFT. 211 

by the diabolical arts of putting off their stockings and making 
a lather of soap. 

Annong all nations witchcraft has always been held in ab- 
horrence, but was not publicly proceeded against, as a crime, 
until the year 1484, when prosecutions commenced under the 
direction of Pope Innocent YIII., and for more than two cen- 
turies Europe was in a state of tumult and consternation, in 
consequence of the trials and executions of persons accused of 
this so called crime. 

The last murder (for so we must call it,) of a witch in Eng- 
land took place in 1722, and the statutes against witchcraft 
were repealed in 1735. This gave such offence to a respect- 
able sect of Christians in Scotland, that in their annual con- 
fession of personal and national sins, they complained of " the 
penal statutes against witches having been repealed by parlia- 
ment contrary to the express law of God!" The Christians 
who emigrated from that country where such views prevailed, 
of course, brought vvitli them those ideas of a good God and an 
evil devil, which resulted in similar horrors here. The first 
person convicted of this crime in New England, was a poor 
woman named Mary Oliver. She was convicted at Spring- 
field, on her own confession, in 1650, but that she was executed, 
does not clearly appear. In the following year three persons 
were executed in Boston, Mass., all of whom asserted their 
innocence. In 1655, Ann Hibbins, the widow of a man of 
respectability, in Boston, was convicted of witchcraft, and 
executed. This sentence was disapproved of by many in- 
fluential men, and although several executions for this offence, 
subsequntly took place in Connecticut, no other person suffiered 
death in Massachusetts, until the lapse of nearly thirty years. 

What is generally called the " Salem Witchcraft," com- 
menced in 1691, and furnishes a melancholy illustration as to 
the fate which the so called manifestations from the spiritual 
world will be likely to meet with, where ignorance and super- 
stition prevail. Persons reputed to possess pure principles, 
and sound understandings, were loud in their denunciations of 
witchcraft, and anxious to bring the offenders to condign 
punishment. Reason was for a time deposed, and fanaticism, 
with her gloomy attendants, the scourge, the stake, and the 
gallows, reigned triumphant. The history of this period can- 
not be dwelt upon without pain. In about a year and a half, 
nineteen persons were hanged, and one pressed' to death, eight 
more were condemned, making twenty-eight in all ; fifty others 
confessed themselves witches, none of whom were executed ; 
about one hundred and fifty were imprisoned, and two hundred 
more were accused, when the delusion suddenly vanished, and 
men began to wonder at the unjust and sanguinary part which 



212 BOOK OF HUMAN NATURE. 

they had been performing-. The special session of the court 
was abruptly closed, and the accused and the condemned were 
set at liberty ! 

Now, if we suppose that eiforts, so to speak, were made by 
the spirit world, during tlie times of what is called witchcraft, 
buc, that ignorance of these times led the people to denounce 
all such manifestations as coming from " the devil," it is easy 
to see' that it was this ignorance and superstition which made 
all the discord and real difficulty. The natives of Nootka 
Sound, we are told, seeing the moon eclipsed, commenced 
beating their drums and made the most hideous noises. On 
being asked the reason, they said a great fish was about to 
swallow the moon, and they made noises to drive the fish 
away. And so of ignorant people, the world over. And 
especially of ignorant priests; for the clergy of New England, 
it is very evident, did more than any other class to originate 
and foster this delusion in this country. It broke out in the 
family of a minister in Salem, Mass. The clergy believed in 
it, and encouraged it by their preaching. They published 
circulars (one was issued from Cambridge College,) about it, 
they addressed the courts of justice where the witches were 
tried. Thej^ published exaggerated accounts of it. 

It was low enough, ignorance enough, bad enough, for them 
to encourage it indirectly in the manner I have stated, but 
when we see one of them (Rev. Cotton Mather,) present, near 
the gallows, when one of the poor victims is about to be 
launched into the spiritual world, the spectacle becomes melan- 
choly indeed. And that victim was himself, also a clergyman, 
the Rev. George Burroughs, a large portly man; his evincing 
more than common physical strength, was admitted by the 
court as an evidence of his being a wizzard, and so he was 
sent in a cart to the gallows. The pious Cotton Mather had 
aided in his conviction, and when this unhappy man was under 
the gallows, with the rope around his neck, Mather went up 
and stood by to see the deed done ; nay, he even addressed the 
spectators and told them not to believe tiiat the criminal was a 
clergyman. He probably thought his being convicted on such 
testimony as a wizzard, deprived him of his clerical credentials. 
My own opinion is, that such a conviction more than any other 
would give a good title to that profession, as one of the per- 
quisites to the clerical title is a firm and unshaken belief in 
the devil. 

How much longer this delusion might have been kept up in 
this country, but for the timely labors of a " Boston merchant,'* 
nained Robert Calef, it is not easy now to conjecture. In 
1699, he addressed a number of caustic letters to Cotton Mather 
upon the subject, and challenged and urged him to an investiga- 



WITCHCRAFT. 213 

tion and review of the whole subject, which the bigoted 
minister never found himself willing to undertake. In Mr. 
Calef's Book on Witclicraft, first published in London, in 
1700,* he discloses numerous characteristic traits in Mr. 
Mather's character, connected with his management of witches, 
and it is quite certain that we are indebted to this " Boston 
merchant" ft)r the first successful check that was put upon that 
dreadful scourge, in this country ; and it affords me pleasure 
to record in these pages the name of one who, at that early 
period took such accurate views of this subject, and who did 
more than any other person, perhaps, to break the terrible 
spell, with which the people of that dark age were bound. 

It must, I think, be sufficiently evident to every candid 
mind, that the state of society which has originated withcraft, 
depends upon ignorance, marvelousness and fear. Whenever 
these faculties become very much excited, and the mind is 
occupied with the thoughts of witchcraft, then it is that such 
persons have thought themselves, or their neighbors, really 
bewitched. (190.) 

Coiiditioii§ of Witclicraft. 

203, Witchcraft then has never been known, except under 
Che following circumstances : — • 

1. The people believed in it, and thought it produced by 
supernatural power. 

2. The persons concerned in it, were ignorant of the laws . 
of mind, and superstitious. 

3. Innocent persons accused themselves and one another, 
and in this way they came to think themselves, or others, 
bewitched. 

4. Their ignorance and superstition led them to attribute 
certain strange phenomena to witchcraft. 

5. The excitement and fear upon the subject, the sight of 
persons said to be in league with the devil, all tended to keep 
up that state of feeling, which constituted the thing called 
witchcraft. 

What more likely to bewitch an ignorant, fearful, and highly 
susceptible person, than to charge him with witchcraft, as 
many have been from envy or hatred 1 The bare suspicion 
spreads from ear to ear, and strikes terror throughout the neigh- 
borhood and country where the belief in witches obtains. The 
suspected person is shunned, as being worse, if possible, than the 

* " More Wonders of the Invisible World." It was re-printed in 
Salem, Mass., in 1823. See, also, " Narratives of Sorcery and Witch- 
craft," by Tliomos Wright. Stearua, & Co. New York, 1852. A 
valuable work. 



214 BOOK OF HUMAN NATURE. 

devil himself; and the horror and fear attendant on the mere 
suspicion of a crime, so monstrous and dreadful in its effects, 
prostrates all before it, and leaves nothing but fear and witchery 
in- its train. 

There is not a case of witchcraft upon record, but which, if 
produced, would confirm the views I have here given of this 
thing. A lady in New York, consulted a fortuna- teller, and 
was so much affected by his prediction of her death, that she 
actually died the very next day, as the old negro told her she 
would ! Take the cases of the children in the poor-house at 
Haarlem, in Holland, who were seized with sympathetic con- 
vulsions ; or any similar excitement which ever occurred, and 
you will find facts enough to demonstrate the doctrine here ad- 
vanced. At such times the nervous system becomes excited 
and deranged, and hence the mind may be impressed and 
moulded into almost any shape which the prevalent whims, or 
superstitious notions may chance lo give it. Hence it is found 
so difficult to reason some people out of their peculiar notions. 

§tiperstitioii. 

204. Gen. Walstein, who lived in the seventeenth century, 
was singularly superstitious, though he was brave and intrepid 
on the field of battle. Tn 1625, while planning one of his cam- 
paigns, he sat up all night, as usual on such occasions, to con- 
sult the stars. Sitting by his window, but in contemplation, 
he felt himself violently struck on the back. Feeling that he 
M^as alone, and his chamber door locked, he was seized with 
affright. He doubted not this blow was a messenger from 
God to warn him of his speedy death. He became melancholy, 
but his friends knew not the cause. His confessor, liowever, 
discovered the cause, and one of the pages of the general con- 
fessed that, being intent on playing one of his comrades a trick, 
he had hid himself in Walstein's apartment, and, mistaking him 
for his friend, had struck him on the back. While his master 
was examining the room, he jumped out of the window. (154.) 
This explanation saved the general's life; for, had it not been 
given, his excited fear and marvelousness would have over- 
powered his nervous system, and thus caused his death. 

So with many people, the barking of a dog at a particular 
time, the breaking of a looking-glass, the gnawing of a little 
insect upon the wall, the burning of. a candle, sight of the 
moon over the left shoulder, are all taken as prognostications 
of bad luck, ill health, or death. And where such supersti- 
tions prevail, people are constantly liable to be bewitched, 
first, out of their senses, and then their health and their lives 
ikU an easy prey to the same superstition. 



WITCHCRAFT. 215 

The following account was originally published in the 
" Zoonomia," and was subsequently .verified by the poet 
Wordsworth : 

A young farmer in Warwickshire, finding his hedges broken, 
and the sticks carried away during a frosty season, determined 
to watch for the thief. He lay many cold hours under a hay- 
stack, and at length an old woman, like a witch in a play, 
approached, and began to pull up the hedge ; he waited till 
slie had tied her bundle of sticks, and was carrying them off, 
that he might convict her of theft, and then springing from his 
concealment, he seized his prey with violent threats. After 
some altercation, in which her load was left upon the ground, 
she kneeled upon the bundle of sticks, and raising her hands to 
Heaven, beneath the bright moon, then at the full, spoke to 
the farmer, already shivering with cold, " Heaven grant that 
ihou mayest never know again the blessing to be warm.'* 
He complained of cold all the next day, and wore an upper 
coat, and in a few days another, and in a fortnight took to his 
bed, always saying nothing made him warm ; he covered him- 
self with very many blankets, and had a sieve over his face as 
he lay. From this one insane idea, he kept his bed above 
twenty years, for fear of the cold air, till at length he died. 

All this might be anticipated at any time, where the cir- 
cumstances and ignorance, and fear of the parties are suffi- 
cient to^be worked upon in this way, by the prediction of an 
old woman. 

But what shall we say for those of the present age, in this 
land of light, who profess to be intelligent and well informed, 
and who nevertheless retain all the old notions about the old 
woman, or witch, with a wrinkled face, a furred brow, a 
hairy lip, a gobber tooth, a squint eye, a squeaking voice, a 
scolding tongue, a ragged coat on her back, a skull cap on 
her head, a spindle in her hand, and a dog or cat by her side. 
Or, perhaps, she is seen scudding through the air on a broom- 
stick,' or baring one of her numerous teats to be sucked by the 
devil. Nay, we have clergymen in our very midst,* who 
have recently written and preached upon this subject, for the 
purpose of creating an excitement, and increasing the faith of 
the credulous in witchcraft, i am not aware that we have 
any "regular" professional "witch-finders," who perambu- 
late the country as of old, with their hazel rods, to find out, 
detect, or accuse innocent people of this horrid crime, for 
three pounds apiece. Nevertheless, we have writers and 
preachers in favor of witchcraft, as if the crimes, and igno- 



* Kev. Henry Jones, of New York, and Dr. Wilson, of Cincinnati, 
tod others, besidea- the Mormona. 



216 BOOK OF HUMAN NATURE. 

ranee, and suffering, attendant upon the prevalence of that be- 
lief should be too soon- prevented and banished from our world. 
It is not enough that thousands on thousands of innocent peo- 
ple, men, women, and children even, have been put to a vio- 
lent death by this detestable notion ; it is not enough that fe- 
males have been driven by it to confess themselves pregnant 
by the devil ; ministers of the Christian religion now advo- 
cate these disgraceful prejudices, and denounce those as ene- 
mies to mankind who attempt to give that information of the 
human mind which might relieve suffering humanity from this 
terrible scourge. 

Sectarianism. 

205. By all parties in politics, all schools in medicine, and 
all sects in religion, is sectarianism disclaimed, and some- 
times even denounced as a very great evil. No one owns it, 
no one pleads guilty to the implication of sectarianism, for the 
more any sect becomes infected with this malady, the less of 
course are they willing to own it. It is supreme selfishness, 
upon a large scale. It is the ingestive efforts which all asso- 
ciated bodies make for their own conservation and enlarge- 
ment. It is, therefore, somewhat of a singular subject, even 
to contemplate. 

Look at the largest sect in the world, that one which boasts 
of being the most pure, the most powerful, the most united, 
the most — no, not most, but really absolutely infallible. That 
one which lords it over the consciences of its members, which 
tells them what they shall, and what they shall not believe, 
and threatens them with the pains of purgatory and hell if 
they disobey. That one that setteth itself up above all that is 
called God, above the civil power, (when it can do it,) and 
commands princes, and they obey. What is this sect striving 
to do, as a secti To aid in the development of the human 
mind 1 To teach and spread a knowledge of Nature's laws ? 
To enlighten its members in respect to the nature, causes and 
cure of those evils which afflict and distract the race ? To 
pour the lights of mental science upon the dark and invisible, 
where so many of her errors, her persecutions, and deeds of 
cruelty and bloodshed have been perpetrated 1 To aid in the 
great work of human progression 1 Why, nothing of the kind. 
How can a real sect, as such, do this ? Its ideas are all 
stereotyped. They cannot be changed. The old, though er-^ 
roneous, cannot be dispensed with, and no new ones can be 
admitted, because they are contrary to the old. They can 
believe nothing that was not believed by some ignorant monk, 
some bigoted friar, some ancient father of the church, who 
lived a thousand years ago. They travel* but it is iii ^ circle. 



SECTARIANISM. 217 

They do not ascend. Sectarianism is the quintessence of 
conservatism. It cannot be improved. It cannot progress. 

Precisely vi^hat the big sect does, all the lesser sects do, for 
sectarianism is the same, whether upon a large or small scale. 
Personified in any one of the different churches, it may he 
heard to utter language like this : — 

" Come to me. Be like me. Think as I think. Do as I 
do. Come unto me ; become a part of me. Let me eat you. 
I will devour you. You shall not be, you shall not live, you 
shall not be happy, unless you become assimilated with me. I 
love you for my own sake. I seek you for my own good. 
Surrender j^our soul and body to me. I will keep your con- 
science. I will tell you what to do, what to eat and drink, 
and when and how to do it. I will tell you how to address 
God in prayer, how to be married, or whether you should 
be married or not ; how to dispose of your money, and all 
your earthly substance. You shall see through my eyes, hear 
through my ears, and be damned if you sin against me. Those 
that love me, and worship me, shall receive all my honors, 
and those who refuse me shall be slandered, and persecuted 
with fire and sword. 

" As to the Bible, you shall entertain the same views of it 
1 do ; all its contradictions, all its errors in chronology or phi- 
losophy, you shall receive and interpret as I do, and in no oth- 
er way whatever, under the severest pains and penalties it 
may be in my power to inflict. And my power is terrible. 

"All other sects except me are heretics. They must be 
put down, by fair means or foul. They have no business to 
be in my way. You must have nothing to do with any other 
sect but me. You shall not attend their meetings. You 
shall not commune with them. You shall not aid and abet 
them at all. I am the real, the true, apostolic, Bible, Sun- 
day, Catholic, Protestant, Congregational, Baptist, Method- 
ist, Jev*?ish, Mormon, Quaker, Presbyterian, Universal sect, 
and those that are not of me, are notso good as I am, and ag 
they must be damned." 

Those who may have read the author's Book of Psychology 
are aware, that thirty years ?Lgo he was a sectarian, and suc- 
cessfully engaged in promoting sectarian excitements, techni- 
cally called "revivals of religion." That I know more of the 
Divine, and more of the human now, than I could possibly 
comprehend forty years ago, is not improbable, perhaps, as all 
will admit. At any rate, I must affirm, that if any man ever 
had facilities for understanding what is meant by the terms 
•' revivals of religion," and sectarianism, the writer was one 
of that number. He can now refer to popular ministers in the 
churches who were " converted" under his ministry, and num- 
10 



218 BOOK OF HUMAN NATURE. 

bers are now members of secTts, who professed their "conver- 
sion" was brought about by his " ministerial labors." Have 
I not attended camp-meetings, conferences, class-meetings, 
love-feasts, four-days' meetings, field-meetings, &c. ; and 
have I not had facilities for knowing what a revival is, if any 
man can know 1 Hence, I concur in the following testimony, 
from one of the leading sectarian papers of the day : — 

" It cannot be denied that the system of recruiting our 
church by revivals has been seriously abused ; and that the 
faith of our preachers and people, in the benefits of such 
religious excitements, has been very much shaken. The plan 
of forcing a periodical excitement, by the aid of professional 
agitators, or revivalists, has been fraught with consequences 
most disastrous to the church. Maciiine-made converts were 
found to have a very ephemeral life, and the successful labors 
of the revival to fill the classes with probationers, were gene- 
rally followed by the more laborious and very ungrateful efforts 
of the regular preachers, to rid them of careless and irreligious 
members. Camp-meetings too, from a variety of causes, have 
become very unproductive, and many of our most thoughtful 
preachers and members have found it necessary to discourage 
attendance upon them."* 

I have, for years, been of the opinion, that the days of 
sectarian propagandism, or " revivals," may be considered as 
numbered. Religion is on the increase, just as sure as the 
Divine Original, its author, is eternal, and progressive in his 
laws. And, in proportion as religion is developed in man, sec- 
tarianism decreases, as we see the puerilities of youth vanish, 
as the child advances into manhood. 

But, then, what are we to understand by " Machine-made- 
converts ?" The sectarian who wrote the above was, himself, 
made a convert by those very laws of mental sympathy which 
he here condemns. Why does he find fault with them 1 Is it 
not because the lights of mental science, and the progressive 
tendencies of the age have disclosed the real merits of all those 
excitements called "revivals," by whatever machinery they 
may have been got up ? That machinery had a good effect on 
my mind. It taught me important lessons. I regret no parfc 
of it. It was an important stepping stone to something above. 
So are all those occurrences in this rudimentary state to be 
considered. The lower steps are sometimes made of stone. 
The first is as necessary as the second. So we ascend, one 
after another. See, now, where they have brought me : — 

1. In my religion. Formerly, it consisted mostly in fear. 
Now, it consists in contentment, in view of the past ; gratitude 

N. Y. Christian Advocate. 



SECTARIANISM. 219 

for the present ; and hope for the future. Hope, not for my- 
self merely, but for the whole human race. 

Formerly God was presented to me as a most repulsive 
sovereign, jealous, angry, vindictive, and revengeful. Now, I 
contemplate him as the benign Father of all, not as a stern 
judge, not as an enemy, seeking and watching for some occa- 
sion for injuring his creatures, and putting them to pain. God 
is good and his tender mercies are over all his works. He 
has made a good system of worlds, and because he made them 
to progress from low to high, it must be from evil to good, 
from discord to harmony. 

This Father is so wise he cannot err, hence, he cannot be 
disappointed ; he cannot be grieved. But, developing men, 
first in the form of infants and children, they being ignorant, 
are often grieved, and in their ignorance they imagine God 
may be grieved also. But not so. He is neither grieved nor 
frustrated, in whatever he designs. He has undertakan to fill 
the Heavens with happy spirits, developed out of human forms 
like those we now iniiabit. And what he has begun to do he 
will surely accomplish without the possibility of failure. To 
fulfill this design ^the earth revolves in its seasons, and flows 
into the vegetable kingdom. The vegetable kingdom flows 
into the animal ; and the vegetable and animal flow together, 
into the human ; all for the purpose of fulfilling that glorious 
design of developing immortal spirits to ascend and dwell for- 
ever in the Heavens of the angels. All forms of matter, when 
they have been left by their seed, or spirit, the higher princi- 
ple which they assisted in developing, go back to their original 
condition. So with plants, and so with man, and thus I infer 
it must be, with this earth itself. When, therefore, it has gone 
through all those processes, possible, or necessary for develop- 
ing all those spirits which comport with its capacity, like all 
else in the coarser forms of matter, it must relapse back to the 
sun, or the central sun, or source whence it came. 

And now, who would not believe in this Heavenly Father 1 
Who does not love Him. Those who think they do not love 
him, do not know him. To know him is to love him, as the 
chief among ten thousands, and the One altogether lovely. 
But, this sectarian machinery, not only tells men they hate this 
lovely Being, but it conjures up such views of him that men 
are compelled to hate him, or those false views which they 
take for him. 

The life, the conversation, the manners, the every day con- 
duct, is the prayer which one and all human beings are 
constantly uttering to this universal Father. You need not of 
necessity go by yourself to pray to him. Enter your closet, 
you may, indeed, when you wish to commune with him ia 



220 BOOK OF HUMAN NATUKE. 

secret. But your every day life is your chief prayer. After 
you have learned your lesson, you do not need always to carry 
your school book in your hand. So if you have learned the 
relation you sustain to the Benign Father, you do not need 
any set form of vocal prayer. What does your conduct say 1 
Your life, yes, your inmost and every day life ! Your conduct 
towards your family, your wife, your husband, your parents, 
your children, your neighbor, and toward all men ? Do you 
love to do as God does for them 1 He develops them with air, 
and food, and labor, and all things else that he sees good. 

2. In my object. Formerly it was sectarianism. Now, it 
is HARMONY in all man's relations — conjugal, fraternal, universal 

HARMONY. 

In infancy all are sectarians. We are all then for self; it 
is all for me, all mine. But as we approach manhood we 
expand. We give, as well as receive. We put ourselves 
into the sphere of others, we wish to help them, we do not 
wish to draw all into self Self-love is the germ of all other 
love, but when it germinates and grows, as it may and should, 
"we love our neighbor as ourselves. 

3. In my motto, or the means I use for realizing my object. 
Formerly, I gratified my combativeness by holding up those 
who differed from me, as " infidels," who would be doomed by 
the Infinite Father of all to smell fire and brimstone in iiell 
for ever. Now, my means are comprehended in the universal 
diffusion of goodness, justice, and truth. And I may, perhaps, 
add that never, till I came to these views of the Divine 
Father, was I perfectly willing to be misrepresented, slan- 
dered, abused, and denounced by professsed Christians and 
clergymen, as an " infidel," nay, anything but an " honest 
man." What I am, my works will testify. I neither ask, 
nor wish for any other vindication. 

Sectarianism jDefined. 

206. There may be said to be three elements, so to speak, 
which tend to make up, sectarianism, and which we wish to 
avoid : 

1. Exclusiveness, withholding equal justice, or privileges, 
from an individual, merely on account of a difference in 
opinion. 

2. Dogmatism. Asserting one's own opinion with undue 
severity and positiveness ; not allowing room for*a modest 
doubt of one's infallibility. 

3. Censoriousness. How much of what is called "gospel 
preaching," is made up of nothing but censure merely on ac- 
count of a difference of opinion ! 

Indeed, what else do we hear tn most of the pulpita from 



SECTAEIANISM. 221 

Sunday to Sunday, except in substance what might be sum- 
med up in so many words — " think as I do, or be eternally 
damned." 

We conclude, therefore, that there is and must be a vast 
difference between sectarianism and religion, and in propor- 
tion as the heart of man is expanded in pure philanthropy by 
the latter, he finds himself leSs and less in possession of the 
former. , 

The true doctrine of manhood is individual sovereignty. 
Sectarianism is the denial of this doctrine ; it is the assump- 
tion of the right, of dictation, of censure, and of punishment, 
merely on account of difference in opinion. That man is, 
therefore, a sectarian, who theoretically denies the doctrine of 
man's individual sovereignty. 

And when this denunciation is carried out in censures, de- 
nunciations, or the infliction of pains, on account of a mere 
difference of opinion, it becomes persecution. Hence, the 
greatest sectarians have always been the greatest bigots and 
persecutors. 

It is a peculiarity of sectarianism, that while it proscribes 
others, its own votaries are more or less blinded by its influence, 
and unable to see the injustice of their own conduct ; so that 
while they often cruelly persecute their neighbors, they ima- 
gine they are doing God service. 

ISectari£iiiisiii Unfriendly to Science. 

207. As sectarianism is always made up of ignorance and 
bigotry, so we know its iron arm has often been raised against 
the plainest dictates of science. 

Galileo was twice denounced in the Inquisition — in 1615 
and 1633. On the former occasion it was decreed that — 

1. The proposition that the sun is in the centre of the world, 
and immovable from its place, is absurd, philosophically false, 
and formally heretical, because it is expressly contrary to the 
Holy Scripture ; and that, 

2. The proposition that the earth is not the centre of the 
world, nor immovable, but that it moves, and also with a 
diurnal motion, is also absurd, philosophically false, and theo- 
logically considered, at least erroneous in faith. ^ 

The philosopher having persevered in teaching this alleged 
heresy, was cited to Rome in 1633, where he was compelled to 
" abjure, curse, and detest the error and heresy of the motion of 
the earth." So far from being permitted to prove his doctrine by 
astronomical reasoning, rather than Scripture, he was con- 
demned for having maintained " that an opinion can be held 
and supported as probable, after it has been declared and 
finally decreed contrary to Holy Scripture." His punishment 



222 BOOK OF HUMAN NATURE. 

was imprisonment during the pleasure of the Inquisitors, and 
the recital of the seven penitential psalms once a week for 
three years. 

Similar proscriptions have heen practised by Protestants. 
The Rev. James Jones, a Wesleyan minister in England, 
wrote a book in 1828, the design of which was to confute the 
popular notion of the Divine prescience. His sect forbade its 
circulation, and required him to burn the entire edition, which 
was done. And among that body of late years, a series of 
unrelenting persecutions have been carried on against numbers 
of its ministers for merely exercising the right of expressing 
their views on matters of church discipline. At their yearly 
conferences, they have arraigned members, and instituted the 
inquisitorial process of demanding "of them whether or not they 
did, or did not write certain books, or papers, anonymously 
published, and then expelled those who refused to answer. 
The chief leaders in the Methodist Episcopal Church, in this 
country, have waged a vindictive and most determined war 
against the freedom of opinion, and the right of free discussion, 
not merely on the subject of slavery, but on matters of church 
discipline. Indeed, both of these churches, north and south, 
have a law in their book of discipline, which prohibits the ex 
pression of an opinion in respect to that very book ; so that> a 
member who ventures to give his views as to the expediency 
of any change for the better, is liable to be arraigned and 
expelled from the sect for the mere expression of such an 
opinion. » 

Clergymen in this church, of good and irreproachable cha- 
racters, have been arrested, and tried before their conferences 
on charges of slander, merely for expressing their views on 
the subject of American slavery, and they have been pros- 
cribed, hindered, and persecuted, till, becoming weary of such 
bitter fruits of sectarianism, they left the sect in disgust. And 
what is here said of one sect might with some qualification be 
said of them all. 

Rome has declared that the earth stands still, and that the 
sun moves from east to west ; or, in other words, that the 
earth does not go round the sun, but-that the sun goes round 
the earth. Galileo taught the contrary — taught the true sys- 
tem — and was compelled to abjure it on his knees. Rome is 
infallible and unchangeable. What is the astronomical system 
taught in the Roman Catholic colleges of this country ? We 
shall be thankful for information on this head.* Galileo was 
not cast into the dungeons of the Inquisition, as is sometimes 

* Montreal Kegister. 



SECTAIIIAXIS]^!. 223 

affirmed. His imprisonment was light. But the fact of his 
'persecution cannot be denied, and it is worse than useless to 
attempt to gloss it. 

Nor is there a sect in the world, not a so-called religious 
body, that tolerates unrestricted investigation, and freedom of 
thought in respect to Theology, Philosophy, and Science. 
The moment a member proposes or begins the discussion of 
any one of its traditional dogmas, he is thrust out. 

In the Theological Seminary at Andover, Mass., (and pro- 
bably other similar institutions,) the Professors take an oath 
once in five years, that they still believe the dogmas of Cal- 
vinism, and have not progressed a hair's-breadth in matters of 
religious belief. What is this, but swearing that if they are 
in error, they will stay there for ever. A beautiful comment 
this on the progressive tendencies of orthodox sectarianism 

ScctariamsBii opposed to Freedom. 

208. Sectarianism has always opposed human liberty, of 
which individual sovereignty is the only true foundation. 

In the time of Torquemada, the first Grand Inquisitor of 
Spain, (that is to say, from 1481 to 1498,) 10,220 persons 
were burned in efiigy ; and 97,071 were condemned to the 
galleys and to the prison. From 1495 to 1507, there were 
2,598 persons burned alive ; 820 burned in effigy ; and 
32,752 consigned to the prison or to the galleys. 

From 1507 to 1517, the numbers who were burned, 3,564 , 
burned in effigy, 2,352 ; condemned to prison and the galleys, 
48,059. 

From 1517 to 1521, under Adrian Florencio, the fourth 
Grand Inquisitor, the victims were; 1,620 burned alive ; 560 
burned in effigy ; 5,060 sent to prison and the galleys. 

From 1521 to 1522 there were 324 individuals burned alive ; 
112 burned in effigy ; 4,481 condemned to the galleys and to 
*prison. 

Alphonso Mauriquez was Grand Inquisitor from 1523 to 
1538, and during that time 2,250 individuals were brought to 
the stake ; 1,122 were burnt in effigy ; and 1 1,250 were con- 
demned to the galleys and to prison. 

From 1538 to 1545 there were burned alive 480 ; burned 
in effigy, 420 ; sentenced to imprisonment and the galleys, 
6,550. 

From 1545 to 1546, in the reign of Charles Y., 1,305 suf- 
fered in the flames ; 660 were burned in effigy, and 6,660 
were condemned to prison and to the galleys. 

During the reign of Philip II., the numbers were — burned 
alive 3,990 ; in effigy, 1,845 ; imprisoned or sent to the galleys, 
18,430. In the reign of Philip III., between 1597 and 1621, 



2iM BOOK 01^ HUMAN NATUKE. 

there were burned alive 692 ; burned in effigy, 10,716 , un- 
der Philip IV., from 1621 to 1665, there were burned alive, 
546; in effigy, 652; under Philip V., from 1700 to 1746, 
they burned 1,600 persons alive ; 760 in effigy, and 9,120 
sent to the galleys and to prison. 

In the reign of Charles VI., from 1788 to 1808, the num- 
bers diminished still more. One person only was condemned 
to be burnt in effigy, and 42 were consigned to the galleys 
and the prison. It was evident that the time of desolation 
had come ; the holy tribunal was forced to abdicate before the 
civil spirit of the age — it was sufficient for its glory that it had 
fulfilled its duty during 339 years. 

What can be more eloquent than this naked summary of 
figures, in 339 years 1 Thanks to the decrees of the Holy 
Inquisition, 33,658 souls were " dismissed to the flames of 
hell, after their accursed bodies had been burnt to ashes at the 
stake !" 18,049 persons were burned in effigy, and 288,214 
were condemned to prison and the galleys — a punishment, 
perhaps, involving greater misery than that of suffering at 
the stake. ^ 

Tiie spirit of sectarianism is the same, whether in Protest- 
ant or Papist. When one, two, or more, combine and make 
effi3rts to impose their peculiar notions upon others, by pro- 
scribing, threatening, or denouncing them in the name of God 
or Religion, that is sectarianism. If I call you by opprobrious 
terms, on account of your dissent from me, that is sectarian- 
ism. Hence, when one party denounce another party as 
" fallen," " sinners," and the like, on account of difference in 
opinion merely, it is pure sectarianism ; and all this may be 
done on a small or a large scale. 

Persecution or denunciation for opinion's sake, has general- 
ly been done by religious bigots, who have relied most on the 
priesthood or the Bible for their authority. Hence we find, 
that as men depend upon one man, or one book for their au- 
thority in matters of Faith, instead of Truth; or when they 
look for truth, principally from one man or one book, in- 
stead of receiving it from the Universal Heavens, they then 
become sectarians, and act accordingly. It is easy to see and 
repudiate the sectarianism of the Papists who have proscribed 
intelligence, and put people to torture and death for their opin- 
ions merely ; but, we overlook the numerous little popes, so to 
speak, scattered throughout Christendom, and the " Popish 
churches" on a small scale, which have sprung into existence 
all over the Protestant world. 

* these statistics are from the Italia Liberia, an Italian Journal, and 
are believed to be accurate- 



THE SPIRITUAL WOPLD. 225 



PNEUMATOLOGY. 

SPIRITS, POSSESSION, INSPIRATION 



The ISpii-itiial W orld. 

209. The views which have, from time immemorial, pre- 
vailed on the Spiritual World, have not differed more, perhaps, 
than the views of the same persons on matters connected with 
the present life. Look at that little child. He is symmetri- 
cal, healthy, beautiful, and happy. But ask him any question 
about his manhood, and see what his answer will be. Has he 
any idea of a future existence at all ? Has he any conscious- 
ness of conjugal, filial, or Divine love ? And does it follow, 
because he cannot comprehend these things now, that there- 
fore, the time will never come, when he can comprehend them 1 
Because he is now a child, is he always to be one, and never 
arrive at manhood 1 

You do not, it may be, comprehend what is meant by Spirits^ 
or the Spiritual World. But do you comprehend what is 
meant by the animal world 1 You believe there is a mineral 
world, in which vegetables may not be found ; and a vegetable 
ivorld, in which no animal is found ; and an animal world, in 
which no human being is found. Can you perceive no distinc- 
tion to be made between the mineral, vegetable, animal, and 
mental worlds? Can you perceive no sense in which one of 
these worlds is above the other 1 Can you understand no 
sense in what is said, w^ien it is affirmed, that the lower, or 
mineral world, cannot comprehend the vegetable world which 
is above it ? (12, 13.) And so of the animal world, it cannot 
comprehend the mental world which is above, only in so far as 
it approaches, and is developed into the sphere of mind. The 
child is the man in miniature ; but the child cannot understand 
that which belongs to manhood, only as he approaches and is 
developed into that state. And, when arrived at manhood, he 
can comprehend what is peculiar to mind, only in so far as his 
own mind is developed in the knowing faculty. 
10* 



226 BOOK OF HUMAN NATURE. 

External senses, for an external world. Internal senses, for 
ideas, for the mental and spiritual. If, then, we must have 
external eyes for external objects, should we not have spiritual 
eyes for spiritual objects? Suppose our organs of 5z^A^ were 
not perfectly developed, till late in life, and that they should 
come into use by degrees, after our nature should be matured 
in all other respects. Suppose, indeed, that we should remain 
totally unable to discern anything by sight till long after 
having the sense of feeling and hearing perfectly educated ; so 
that we might pass years of our lives, in hearing about sight, 
before we should find ourselves able to use this faculty at all. 
How difficult it must be, in such a condition, to realize anything 
as to what the sense of sight would be when once perfectly 
developed 1 We might hear the most enrapturing discourses 
on colors and the beauties of the rainbow. But, alas ! never 
having seen it, nor having seen any one who had been more 
favored in this respect than ourselves, it would seem to us like 
an idle dream, and we should be ready to exclaim — " Show us 
a rainbow ! Let us see one, then we will believe, but not till 
then." 

So we say of the spirit and the spiritual world. Show us a 
spirit, let us see one ! Well, now let me ask, — Have you a 
mind ? Let me see your mind. How will you convince me, 
that you have any mind, unless you show it to me 1 0, yes, 
you exclaim, you will show your mind to one who has mental 
eyes to see it. Mind can be seen only by mind. True. And 
so we say of spirit. Spirits can be seen only by spiritual 
eyes, as external objects can be discerned only by external 
sight. 

But, to many who have, from their earliest years, been ac- 
customed to believe in the spiritual world, it is exceedingly 
difficult to form any idea as to how " disembodied spirits," as 
they are called, can make themselves known to men's external 
senses, as they are said to do in the " mysterious knockings." 

The term '*' disembodied" is not philosophically correct. A 
spirit is a bodi/, that is, the personality to which we apply the 
term spirit, is as much a body, and has form, as really as any 
object in the external world. If a human being could be made 
of pure air ; such a being would have a body, though of air. 
Or, if we could imagine a human body made of electricity, it 
would give us an idea as to how a body may exist, while 
invisible to the external senses. Spirits, then, are not dis- 
embodied in any other sense, than that they have left, or cast 
oiF this coarse, external body, which was so closely allied to 
earth. Indeed, we cast off our earthly bodies a number of 
times during the space of twenty-one years, even. We have 
the same external form, but it is not composed of the same 



THE SPIKITUAL WORLD. 227 

particles of matter that entered into its composition ten years 
ago. Hence, we are now, disembodied, in one sense ; we are 
changing the components of our external forms constantly, 
from the moment we are born till we throw them off entirely. 

The spirit, within, then, must give shape and form to the 
body without ; and as the animal body is developed and shaped 
by the spirit principle within it, so we can perceive what Form 
the spirit is in after death; and the misuse of terms in calling 
the spirit of man " immaterial." If we mean by this term, 
that man's spirit is not dissoluble, it is well enough, but not if 
we use it to signify something which is not substance, or 
nothing. The term immaterial is often, improperly. I think, 
used to signify whatever is opposed to the external world ; and 
so the spirit is said to be immaterial. But it should be enough 
to signify what we mean by the term spirit, which, though 
matured, or composed of substance, refined and sublimated be- 
yond all that can be imagined or described in this lower sphere, 
yet it can never be dissolved, and hence must exist for ever. 

It would not follow, that because we cannot tell how a 
spirit after death can act upon our external senses, that, there- 
fore, no such action can be made. The most that we believe 
of human life, we admit, not because we know the how or the 
manner of it, but, because we know the facts to be true, though 
we are not by any means able to explain them. We believe 
facts, though at the same time we know, or feel perfectly 
satisfied, that the manner of the thing is not only inexplicable, 
but, indeed, far beyond our present powers of comprehension. 
Can any one tell how a blade of grass grows ? We are unable 
to explain what we call the most simple, and why should we be 
dissatisfied if the higher and more complicated phenomena are 
not unraveled to our feeble comprehension ? And suppose 
some superior Intelligence from above, were to attempt an ex- 
planation to us of the manner in which the blade of grass is 
made to grow ? Are we sure we should be able to comprehend 
what would be said to us upon the subject? Do we know 
what matter, or substance is? And, what is force? You 
know what is meant by gravitation. But can you make this 
understood by a child? The child can distinguish between an 
apple and an acorn, but can he tell the difference between an 
emotion and a volition ? 

It is easy to see, that there are differences which some 
minds are too feeble to appreciate, and realities there may be, 
and laws appertaining to the spiritual world, which, indeed, 
enter into the very constitution of our nature, and yet we may 
be too gross to understand them. 



MB BOOK OF HUMAN NATURE. 



What lias Occurred? 

210. It is peculiar to infancy and imperfection to ask the 
question as to the why of phenomena, even long before any 
desire is felt to understand what has occurred. Why does it 
rain 1 Why does the wind blow ? Why does the water 
freeze. How often are these and similar queries put to the 
parents, while no one ever thinks of asking as to the real 
essence or form of the phenomena that have occurred. And 
thus it happens in respect to all branches of science. The 
most important questions are the very last ones to be asked, 
and for this sufficient reason, that the mind must be developed 
by observation before it is capable of putting questions in re- 
spect to the real essence of things. The brains are the last 
to be matured, and the most important knowledge is that 
which results from experience, age, and the longest course of 
observation. 

At first view it seems difficult to speak of the phenomena 
that have arrested so much attention throughout this country 
during the last five or six years, and which have taken the 
name of spiritual manifestations. It is difficult, not only 
because the phenomena themselves are new, startling, and in- 
credible even ; but because they are found to combine so many 
different phases, apparently, so much that is intangible, ""so 
much that is apparently contradictory, and so very many cir- 
cumstances, conditions, views, feelings, affinities, and laws, 
visible and invisible, that it is found to be utterly impossible 
to do the subject justice, either in a few words, or in one 
attempt. There is every thing to be learned, not merely of a 
section of the vegetable or animal worlds ; every thing to be 
learned not merely of a branch of natural or moral science, 
nor indeed of the whole circle of science and philosophy, ap- 
pertaining to this world of which we form a part. The in- 
vestigation upon which we now enter, is, or must be supposed, 
deeper, broader, higher, than all that appertains to the world 
in which we live. It is not of the physical, or the mental, 
that we speak, not of the world we have seen or heard, or 
comprehended with our external senses at all. 

No marvel, therefore, that the mind does sometimes, 
tremble upon this verge, and fear to proceed. It is a path 
never before trodden, and leads not to a distant city, not to a 
thick wild wood, not to the regions of fancy, even in the 
invisible, but to another world ! We say world, because* 
it is no part or section of this world with which we are ac- 
quainted ; a world of which we know nothing, and believe but 
little. And, phenomena reaching to such a world, must be 



THE SPIRITUAL WORLD. 229 

involved in more than common mystery, and the danger of 
misjudging in respect to them must, in the very nature of the 
case, be very great indeed. We do not know that there iis 
such a world. Or, if there be, we do not know which part 
of it approximates to the external world in which we live. 
Or, if there be approximation, we do not know how it is, nor 
why ? We have every thing to learn. Nothing must be 
taken for granted. We must see, or hear, or feel our way, 
step by step. Caution was given us for some good purpose. 
Perhaps it was to guard us from entering too deeply into the 
invisible ; against giving too much sway to our fancy, or an 
excited imagination. Let us be prepared, then, as best we 
may for an examination of any thing and all things ; to look 
at phenomena that may appear to us not merely, incredible, 
but as actually and physically impossible. Nay, we must not 
merely look at them, we must take hold of them, we must ex- 
amine them with each of our senses, we must enter among 
them, go into them ourselves, and let them into us, into our 
minds ; we must take them into our hands, we must dissect 
them, " mark, learn, and inwardly digest" them, in order to do 
justice to this momentous subject. Suppose the difficulties in 
our way may be, indeed, formidable. Those very difficulties 
call into action the faculties of our minds that were given us 
for overcoming them. 

What, then, has been done? What are the phenomena 
alleged to have occurred? This question fairly answered, if 
indeed it can be, and we may be the better able to give the 
reason implied in the why and wherefore. I myself, in the 
beginning, was embarrassed for the want of facts, such as I 
now have a knowledge of; and others may be liable to suffer 
from the same cause. Hence it seems to me, that we can 
not safely form conclusions in regard to the history, philosophy 
and uses of this whole subject, until we have all the facts 
before us. Facts become science when they are multiplied in 
sufficient numbers, and so systematized as to preclude all dis- 
pute. Admitting then, as I am ready to do, that, perhaps, 
more than seven-eighths of all that has occurred under the 
name of withcraft, or the modern spiritual manifestations, so 
called, may be satisfactorily accounted for by the laws of 
psychology, yet I am bound to say, that neither these nor any 
other laws that appertain to this sphere, as far as my know- 
ledge and belief extend, are at all adequate for explaining that 
which I myself have witnessed.* Many I know have erred 
in their attempts "to account for these things, for a want of a 
knowledge of all the facts. The newspapers have teemed 

* See (151,) what has already been said concerning " od." 



280 BOOK OF HUMAN NATURE. 

with articles in which ' all the mysteries" are solved, as it 
were, by one stroke of the pen ! Various books and pamphlets 
have been published, in which the writers are confident that 
they have found the only true explanation that can be given of 
these wonderful phenomena ! 

One theory will account for one phenomenon, but not for all. 
It is curious to witness how sanguine and confident certain 
writers are, that they have hit upon the solution of all the 
phenomena, merely because they suggest an explanation which 
might be sufficient to account for one single fact, without 
allowing it to be done by spirits out of the human body. 

We want not only all the facts, but we desire them " with- 
out note or comment," we want them to be permitted to'speak 
as it were for themselves. The disadvantage is great when 
a fragment only of the subject is perceptible, as even when 
the whole appears, and under circumstances the most favor- 
able, it cannot be understood precisely alike, perhaps, by any 
two persons, as no two may be found whose capacities for 
comprehending any given facts are exactly the same. 

Unaccountable Phenomena. 

211. The following are a part of the phenomena produced 
in my own family, and which have been witnessed by multi- 
tudes of people ; and these results have been testified to, pub- 
licly and privately, often, and in different localities throughout 
the country. 

I prefer to state only what I have myself witnessed. But, 
then, it must be borne in mind, that the same that I here de- 
scribe as having occurred in my own family, and " even great- 
er works than these," have been witnessed elsewhere, and 
well-authenticated accounts of which have been laid before 
the public. So that, at the present time, it cannot be said that 
these things have either been done in a corner, nor that accu- 
rate accounts of them were not made known at the very time 
they occurred. These reports are now public property, in such 
a sense, that no one thinks of calling their authenticity in ques- 
tion, nor of disputing but that the facts did actually occur, as 
is here and elsewhere set forth. 

When, in the following account, I say that certain things 
were done "without human agency," I mean that no human 
efforts were made ; and under most of the circumstances none 
could be made without being instantly detected ; and further, 
that no human being present had any thought of the results, 
often before they were developed. They were addressed to 
each of the external senses. Thus — 

I. Hearing. Sounds v^ere made in one or a half dozen 
places, at once ; different sounds, made on the floor, on the 



. THE SPIRITUAL WORLD. 231 

table, on the chairs, on the window, on the sides of the house, 
and under the feet of spectators. These sounds made visible 
vibrations in articles that were not touched, at the time, by 
any mortal. 

They varied in loudness and force, from a mere rap, as with 
a finger upon a table, to those which sounded as if the floor 
were struck with a large hammer, or stamped upon by some liv- 
ing person, so as to shake the house. At times they are made 
with the table, that is, an ordinary parlor or centre table is 
seen without hands, to rise up, move about, and fall upon 
the floor rapidly, as if some intelligent power were attempting 
to pound the floor with the table. 

Sounds imitating mechanics at work, such as striking with 
a hammer, driving nails, planing, sawing, driving hoops, 
grooving, &c., and made on the table when no human hands 
touched it. 

Strange noises, like the human voice ; articulation of words 
and sentences. 

Sounds imitating the discharge of fire-arms and minute guns 
at sea. 

Sounds imitating the bass and snare drums ; tunes drum- 
med out, of which no one present had any knowledge. 

Music produced by drumming on the table or floor, and by 
musical sounds, resembling an Eolian harp. 

I have heard music produced in this way, for five and ten 
minutes at a time, most beautiful and heavenly, superior to 
any and all the music I ever heard from human beings. I 
heard it at one time when only two other persons were pres- 
ent in the house. It was continued for some five minutes, 
and one of the strains was a tune I had often heard before. It 
commenced apparently at a distance, but gradually drew near- 
er — and as it did so, the swells and cadence were charming 
beyond the power of language to describe. 

II. Sight. Strange lights produced in a dark room, and 
the appearance of human forms seen by skeptical spectators. 
Sometimes only a hand, or a face, or a part of the features ; 
at other times, the whole contour of the human form is seen. 
This I know from personal experience. At Dr. Phelps', in 
Stratford, Ct., appearances were seen as if persons were 
walking from room to room, covered with a sheet. On watch- 
ing the figure the sheet is seen to fall upon the floor, and no- 
thing under it. Here it was, also, that other strange sights 
were seen. The beds altered, and the clothes adjusted as if 
a corpse were laid out, in the bed. The wearing apparel of 
the family, made into ten images resembling human beings ; 
they were arranged in a row. all kneeling, before ten chairs, 
and each had a Bible in its hands, as if in imitation of the 



232 BOOK OF HUMAK NATURE. 

manner in which Dr. Phelps and his family performed their 

worship. 

Volumes might be filled with details of phenomena ad- 
dressed to sight, and evincing Force exercised over physi- 
cal bodies. A window in my daughter's room has been raised 
without human power ; doors have been moved, opened, and 
shut, when requested. A table bell has been rung, and the 
same bell taken from a table, without hands, and wrapped in 
a silk apron. Silk and woolen form no obstacle in the way of 
this force. 

The table moved without human hands. It is upset, raised 
up, made to dance, and carried a distance of fifty feet ! Chairs 
turned over, or made to vibrate without human agency. Arti- 
cles moved, or thrown from place to place in all directions, 
to, and obliquely from, the medium. Books and papers have 
been repeatedly moved in the hands, and taken out of the 
hands of spectators. 

Writing on a slate and on paper, with a pencil ; done when 
the paper was held in the hand of the spectator ; done over 
and under the table. The hand-writing of deceased persons 
apparently imitated, of which the medium had no knowledge 
at all. 

III. The Sense of Feeling. I have been taken hold of, 
handled, patted on my head, shaken, my clothes pulled, and 
touched with great force, when no human being, (whose 
hands were not both held fast) was near enough to me to touch 
me in any way. Have had the sensation of another taking 
hold of my hand, touching me as if to call my attention. Once 
I was struck, with such force that the blow caused a sensa- 
tion approaching to pain, and the sound was heard a consider- 
able distance. 

Mysterious Intelligence. 

212. But, in addition to all the phenomena like those 
here described, it is the communication of intelligence, and 
the manifestation of love, joy, and hatred, that give these 
things a claim to our consideration, which cannot be well re- 
sisted. Nor would this account be at all complete, were I to 
omit to describe something of what these things have them- 
selves done ; the impressions they have made upon the 
minds of mortals, and the estimate which is put upon them. 
Not merely what has been done by the invisibles, such as 
the manifestations of all those traits which characterize In- 
dividual Personality, but also the effects which these mani- 
festations have had on many minds who have witnessed them. 
Premising, then, that it must be constantly borne in mind, 
that no one knows, and perhaps no one can know, very 



THE SPIRITUAL WORLD. 233 

well, WHO these invisibles are ; for, thus far, in these devel- 
opments, it does not seem to have been demonstrated, that in 
these manifestations, demonstration of personal identity is a part 
of the thing to be done. Whether ii can be or not, may well 
be doubted, but here it is only necessary to remember as we | 
proceed, that this has not yet been done. Mortals may he- 1 
lieve what they please, as we have seen ; they may enter 
the invisible, and inquire for the unknown ; and when in those 
shades of uncertainty and doubt, they may exercise any 
amount of faith that they find themselves capable of doing ; 
and the exercise of this faith is precisely what these spiritual 
manifestations confessedly have done. Oh, the potency of 
faith, by which 

"The invisible appears in sight, 
And God is seen by mortal eyes." 

So we must enter again the invisible, to find what these 
mysterious manifestations have indeed done. And even then 
we shall scarcely be able to do the subject ample justice. It 
combines so much of love and goodness, the excitement of all 
that is tender and gentle, all that is near and dear ; all that is 
delightful in friendship, all that is involved in conjugal, paren- 
tal, fraternal and filial Love. Love that has been once be- 
reaved, love that followed the cherished object of its ador- 
ation to the lone and silent grave. 

"Who has not lost a friend, a brother, 
Heard a father's parting breath. 
Or, gazed upon a hfeless mother 
Till she seemed to wake from death ?" 

And, now, after years of absence, after burying your loved 
ones from your sight, after having dismissed all thought of know- 
ing more of them till (per chance,) you should find them in that 
" undiscovered land from whose bourne no traveller returns," 
nay, after having long doubted whether there were really any 
consciousness after death, to hear certain " mysterious sounds," 
and by a certain interlocutory process, in which you speak, 
and something else, " raps," you succeed in working yourself 
into the belief, that you are indeed actually holding a conversa- 
tion with your own dear father, mother, brother, sister, child, 
husband, or wife, long since departed from this mortal coil ! 
All this you believe, and what hope, what love, what ecstatic 
joy is revived in the soul ! You are in a new world. Crea- 
tion itself puts on a new phase, so real are your faith and hope. 
You are now in Heaven, that blissful sphere where the counte- 
nances of all are radiant with purity and inexpressible delights. 
Conscious of your elevation above the plane of doubt and fear 



234 BOOK OF HUMAN NATURE. 

about death and immortality, you instinctively repel all that 
are below you, who are not receptive with you of the same 
views with yourself. You are now consoled with the real 
presence of " guardian spirits" who watch over you all the 
time for good. Communications of love are " spelled out" to 
you, or communicated in some other way, all coming from 
those you knew and loved while they, like you, were in tene- 
ments of clay. You are enraptured with the beautiful mes- 
sages made to you. True, they do not come quite so often as 
you could desire, and when you have asked for a " test," it 
was not forthcoming as you might have expected. But, then, 
what of that? They are spirits. And spirits never make 
mistakes ; or if there be any mistake about it, the spirits do 
not tell lies ; or, if some spirits do, your guardian spirits do noc. 
You know your own loved ones would not lie to you. And 
what if promises are often made which are never fulfilled, wliat 
if you find it is not exactly so, they are good spirits and cannot 
lie. They are clairvoyant spirits, too, and often tell what is in 
the mind of the medium, or what they perhaps, imagine is, or 
ought to be there, and when they cannot tell their earthly 
names, nor their age, when they died, nor the place where, nor 
the time when, nor the manner how ; or rather, when your 
own dear loved guardian spirit forgets, or falsifies about some 
one, or all of these things, you must not, do not doubt but that 
it is the real something or somebody you take it to be. 

If, then, we admit that any amount of joy, as if upon the 
recognition of long lost and dear friends, any amount of con- 
jecture and guess work, as to who the spirits may be, any 
amount of real pleasure and satisfaction which vast multitudes 
of intelligent people have taken from first to last, in com- 
muning with spirits who they supposed were their departed 
friends ; any amount of excitement and joy even, which must 
naturally result from such belief, however unfounded it might 
be, if I say, we admit all this, (and much more that will be 
stated in the sequel,) then we may have some just conception 
of what these mysterious things have done. This is the bright 
side. The picture is not perfect without a few shades, which 
will appear in due time. 

Metliod of Investigation. 

213. Presenting, then, as this subject does, so many features 
that are confessedly of human origin, while at the same time 
it brings before us a multitude of phenomena, startling, and 
astonishing, even beyond the power of language to describe ; 
phenomena which I do not know how to account for, except I 
admit the agency of spirits out of the human body, it becomes 



SPIRITUAL WORLD. 235 

a question to which strict justice cannot be done in a few 
words. It assumes an aspect which imperiously demands in- 
vestigation, and in a form that I do not feel disposed, either to 
deny or to evade. 

What I propose is, not myself as a teacher or dictator on 
the subject. Having traveled a long journey, and finding 
others going in the same direction, in search of Truth, it is 
natural that I should describe the difficulties I have met with 
in the rout I have taken, as also, the notes and observations I 
have made by the way, and speak, also, of the point whence I 
started, the views by which I was stimulated in my labors, to- 
gether with the satisfaction I have experienced in my own 
mind, in witnessing, as I have, the beauties of the country 
through which I have passed. A pathway beset, indeed, with 
frightful precipices, leading through a country unfrequented by 
mortals, and without a chart or guide; without any accounts 
of this '• unknown country," upon which I can wholly rely 
from those who have gone before. There may be quick falls, 
which I never suspected, wild animals and ferocious beasts, 
lurking for their prey. The country is unknown, the passage, 
the path that leads to it, wholly untried : — 

" Bound on a voyage of awful length 
And dangers little known, 
A stranger to superior strength, 
Man vainly trusts his own." 

My readers then, are entitled to know how I commenced thi!» 
journey, the state of mind in which this investigation was 
entered upon, and all and singular in respect to the affinities, 
capacities, hopes, fears, advantages, or disadvantages, which 
have helped me forward, or which may be thought to have 
retarded my progress in an undertaking of this kind. I must, 
therefore, open my heart and think aloud on this subject. I 
must make known my inmost nature ; the reader must know all 
necessary to be known, to enable him to judge as to the source 
whence the details come, that are now submitted for his adjudi- 
cation. 

Personal. 

214. 1. That I am not now, and wasnot when I commenced 
the investigation of the subject, a sectarian in any oifensive 
sense of the term. My creed is a short one. Individual 
sovereignty, the true doctrine of Manhood, and Eternal Pro- 
gression the destiny of the Race. I was in the beginning as 
wow, wholly uncommitted to all mere traditional dogmas, either 
in respect to this world or another, to which we may be tend- 
ing. Hence, it must be obvious, that I neither believed in the 
notion of absolute evil, here or elsewhere ; nor in the popular 



286 BOOK OF HUMAN NATURE. 

dogmas in respect to an old boss devil, or " evil spirits." 
When I first commenced conversing with the invisibles who 
purported to be spirits, that had left the human form, I had no 
thought nor suspicion of being deceived by what was affirmed 
to me. Hence, I infer, that if any spirit have ever falsi- 
fied to me, either incidentally or from design, it could not have 
been caused by a belief in myself, that brought such spirits 
near to me, for I had no such views. 

A belief in the doctrine of spiritual affinities has inspired me 
with a love of goodness for goodness" sake, a love of the truth 
for its own sake. Hence, as I would not be deceived, so I 
have never, from first to last, designedly deceived any spirit, or 
any medium, or mortal, connected with this subject. I have 
feigned nothing, have never asked' for a fictitious spirit, or for 
the spirit of one who had not (as I believed) left this sphere. 
But I have often allowed spirits to carry on. conversations, 
when I knew that every word they uttered was falsehood, from 
beginning to end. 

But I do not give my own experience as a standard for any 
other person. Each must seek, judge, and act for himself. 
We shall find, perhaps, on comparing notes, that, while our 
experiences may all agree in some points, they disagree in 
others ; and hence we shall be slow to use the word " alivays^^'' 
when speaking of spirits who inhabit another world which we 
have not entered, as when certain writers have said, " Spirits 
always do so and so." They may " always" do so with one 
medium ; but with another, it may be altogether different. 

2. I undertook this inquiry with an ardent desire to main- 
tain an evenly balanced state of mind ; to be neither unreason- 
ably doubtful on the one hand, nor unduly credulous on the 
other. If the mind be not harmoniously developed, or if it be 
shackled with traditional prejudices, its condition must neces- 
sarily be unfavorable for receiving new truths. And thus, 
while we yield all the conditions we can, consistently, to the 
spirits, which they ask for, we should bear in mind what is 
necessary for us mortals who are a party in this investigation, 
and have immense interests pending its issue. 

3. During the past three years, 1 have enjoyed all the 
facilities for investigating this subject, which, perhaps, could 
be reasonably desired, not excepting some days and nights 
spent in the family of Dr. A. Phelps, in Stratford, Ct. And 
in passing let me say, that I do not perceive how any one can 
be well '• posted up" on this subject who has not either visited 
the family of Dr. Phelps, or read some authenticated account 
of the most unaccountable things that have taken place there. 
The " disturbances," as they were called, in Stratford, which 
occurred during the year 1850, are among the most strange of 



SPIRITUAL WORLD. 237 

amy ^nd all things of the kind, of which history has given us 
any account, and far exceeding even the vv'onders of " witch- 
craft" of past ages. Indeed nothing of the kind has ever 
occurred, as far as I know, in any other part of the world. 

The time I spent there was by the kind invitation of Dr 
Phelps, whom I knew to be a venerable, truthful, excellent, 
Orthodox clergyman. What I witnessed at his house was 
strange, and unaccountable indeed, and what I never could 
have believed, 4iad I not witnessed such things with my own 
external senses. 

My investigations have not been casual nor incidental mere- 
ly ; nor have they been confined to times or^ places. They 
were undertaken in order to find the truth, and have been 
continued, in different parts of the country, for years, with- 
out any interruption. During this time, I have devoted my 
whole attention to this work, so that I have been, not dai- 
ly, but hourly, as it were, in converse with the spirits by 
the " sounds." Sittings have been held in my own family, 
till they approached a thousand, which have been attended 
by large numbers of people, not to speak of the constant op- 
portunities which my own children (who were the media,) 
afforded me, at my own fireside, of investigating this mat- 
ter in every possible form which curiosity, credulity or skep- 
ticism could suggest. 

In my own tamily, all the phenomena have taken place 
which have been described by various writers on the sub- 
ject, except what might be classed under the head of " ner- 
vous," or sympathetic. The mediums in my own family 
have been audibly spoken to, and manuscript writing has 
been done in their presence, without any motion made by any 
human being. 

I wish to be understood as saying, that the " spiritual man- 
ifestations" which have forced certain conclusions upon the 
unbiased judgment of those whose opinions I now utter, have 
not, as I believe, been inferior, in any sense, to any of the 
same class, ever made in any part of the world. 

These remarks seem due to the subject, here, as nothing 
is more common than for mediums who are possessed or as- 
sociated with a certain spirit, and those of their friends vi'ho 
rely upon communications made by such spirits, to flatter 
themselves that they are not deceived, though others may 
be \ they attract spirits of a very high order, and who would 
not lead them astray ! But considerable experience has con- 
vinced me, that those who rely upon these invisibles are the 
most deceived when they are so possessed and hallucinated by 
some apocryphal spirit, as to imagine they either never were 
deceived, or that they are so secure that they could not be. 



238 BOOK OF HUMAN NATUEE. 

I have witnessed these " manifestations " in all their vari- 
ous forms, in different places throughout the country. In- 
deed, I have witnessed more of them than any other one per- 
son, of whom I have any knowledge. I have the testimonies 
of a very large number of intelligent candid people, in Boston, 
New York, Philadelphia, St. Louis, Providence, R. I., and 
from the extreme West, including those who have themselves 
been mediums for every variety of the spiritual phenomena. 
The experience from which my conclusions are drawn, in- 
cludes communications purporting to come from the spiritual 
world, combining all of Goodness and Truth, as I l)elieve, 
which was ever made to mortals (in this manner,) and af- 
fording the highest elements for instruction, admonition and 
hope. I have no knowledge of any similar "communica- 
tions," assuming even to be of a higher order than what I have 
witnessed myself, or that have been witnessed by those whose 
opinions I give. 

4. As I approached this investigation uncommitted in the- 
ory, being uninformed as to what it was, or why it was done, 
I did not and have not undertaken to say what it should he. 
I have used no dictation, and have carefully striven to avoid 
the exertion of any influence which might prevent the thing 
from speaking for itself, and making known its own Essence, 
Form, and Use. Hence, in all the sittings which I have 
ever attended, I have requested simply to witness what 
should come to pass ; to have the " spirits," whoever they 
might be, do their own work, and do it in their own w^ay. 

During the whole process of my investigations, I have been 
animated with a conscious love of the truth, and with an ar- 
dent hope that great good would eventually grow out of these 
developments — good for the whole human race. And I may 
add that 1 have experienced great satisfaction in the results of 
my labors. Though often disappointed, by finding something 
below what I had hoped for, and at other times witnessing 
what compelled me reluctantly to admit there must be the 
false where I had looked for the truth, yet I have been abun- 
dantly rewarded for all my toils. No labor, no investigation 
that I ever engaged in, ever afforded me more rational, manly 
satisfaction, than I have found, from the first till now, in the 
examination of this subject. Tome, the Truth is above all 
price — more precious than rubies, or the gold of Ophir. All 
things that can be desired are not to be compared to her. 
Labor is sweet, pain is rest, if so be we may progress in Good- 
ness and in Truth, however much we may be compelled to 
endure in their acquisition. 



THE SPIEITUAL WORLD. 239 

"What lias done it ? 

215. All results have an adequate cause. Here are phe- 
nomena that are new, and certainly very strange. What has 
produced them ? What is the remote cause 1 What can it 
be 1 Is it human ? Is the cause within the reach of natural 
science 1 

Enough has already been said under the head of od, (151,) 
to show that it cannot be some unknown, undefinable some- 
thing evolved from the human body. Nor can it be the hu- 
man mind, acting in a new way. (174.) Persons unacquaint- 
ed with Mind, say it is the human mind acting somehow, they 
know not exactly how. But why call it the human mind, if 
you do not know what it is"? Why call it mind, when it is 
so contrary to all else that we know of mind ? Why call it 
mind, when the most powerful, the most intelligent minds are 
utterly unable to produce any thing of the kind ? If it be the 
human will, do it. The fact that similar things do occur in 
the presence of a certain class called mediums, when they 
will these things, is not sufficient to authorize this assump- 
tion. And besides, the persons in whose presence the table 
is seen to move when the hands are put upon it, are mediums 
for what are called spiritual manifestations. Mark this. You 
will never find physical bodies moving in this manner without 
the presence of spiritual mediums. 

But it is not true that these phenomena do, always, occur 
in the presence of all who are the media for these things. 
Some mediums, who will them ever so much, do not succeed 
in producing them at all. The phenomena occur in their pre- 
sence, but not as the results of volition on' the part of any 
mortal. So it was especially at Dr. Phelps'. 

Were these results dependent on human volition, they 
should always occur in the presence of those mortals whose 
WILL is the strongest. But this is not the case, by any 
means. 

But they are produced by electricity *? Well, and how does 
this appear 1 Here is an electrical machine. See, now, if 
you can produce them. You try, and fail. So have I tried, 
and failed. So have others. Here is a galvanic battery. Try 
that. Can you produce them? Not at all. I know that you 
cannot produce them by any battery, ever so powerful. 

But it is said they must be produced by electricity evolved 
from the human body, because if at any time a half-a-dozen 
persons sit around a common table, with their hands on it for 
a half an hour, the table will become so much affected with 
something, that it will move. Indeed ! Affected with some- 
thing. Well, what is the table affected with when you take 



240 BOOK OF HUMAN NATURE. 

hold of it and move it yourself^ But then, what if a table 
does move with a half-a-dozen hands upon it. How does this 
account for a table's moving a distance of fifty feet, as I have 
seen it do, with no human being touching it in any way. The 
eases are not parallel. 

But, after all, " it is electricity." It must be electricity, 
because if it be not, the objector does not know what else it 
can be. Well, so I might say, it is caused by the moon — 
because if it be not the moon, I cannot tell what it is. What 
is gained by talking in this way"? As long as we cannot ac- 
count for these things by any of the known magnetic or elec- 
trical laws, it is scarcely allowable to call these phenomena 
by these terms. 

And then, again, it is a matter of just complaint, that we 
have never yet been told what kind of electricity this is. Is 
it frictional, thermal, animal, or what? Who knows'? Who 
can tell 1 O, says one, it must be animal electricity, like that 
which is evolved by the gymnotus. Ah, indeed. And how 
does this appear ? That which comes from the electric eel 
affects nothing but animals ; it produces shocks only in a liv- 
ing body. It does not make loud sounds, nor does it move 
tables and chairs, and much less do we find the electrical eel 
answering questions, and holding conversations with human 
beings. Electricity does not think; it has no ideas, no con- 
sciousness of selfhood. It never says me, mine, myself. 
The electrical telegraph does not convey intelligence of itself 
— it is an agent merely, worked and operated upon by a liv- 
mg^ thinking organism, as high above electricity as man is 
above the earth. 

Perhaps no man in this country is more familiar with the 
entire subject of electricity, magnetism, and electro-magnet- 
ism, than Mr. Daniel Davis, formerly Mathematical Instru- 
ment maker, of Boston. At my request, this gentleman 
brought an electrometer to my house for the purpose of test- 
ing this question in respect to electricity. It was of such ex- 
quisite susceptibility to the presence of electricity, that the 
gold leaf was moved by the friction on one of the brass knobs, 
of a single human hair! Mr. Davis truly remarked, that 
*' electricity next to nothing would move the instrument," 
with such exceeding sensitiveness had it been constructed. 

The medium, my daughter, was isolated, and with her hand 
resting upon the brass ball, the " mysterious sounds," were 
made, as usual, while the gold leaf of the instrument was not 
moved in the least perceptible degree. Here, then, was a 
test. In this case it was not done by electricity ; for elec- 
tricity forcible enough to make loud sounds upon a chair, so 
as to caiuse it to vibrate, must have caused some motion in the 



THE SPIRITUAL WORLD. 241 

gold leaf. Had there been any evolution of electricity from 
the body of the medium, it must have been indicated by the 
instrument.* 

I have, also, tested the subject with magnetism. I put upon 
the table, and in various positions contiguous with the me- 
dium, a very powerful horse shoe magnet, sufficient to raise 
seventy-five pounds. It produced no effects whatever. 

But says the objector, if it be not electricity, it is pathetism. 
O, yes, undoubtedly. If it be not magnetism it is electricity, 
and if not electricity, why it is pathetism, and if not pathetism, 
it is something else ! Undoubtedly it is something else. But, 
let me ask you, how you account for the fact, that if it be 
pathetism, I, myself, am not able to do these things ? I think 
I understand what is implied in the use of such terms as mes- 
merism, or pathetism. Nor am I aware that any results have 
ever been induced by this process which I have not brought 
about. How is it, that if it be the influence which I have 
been in the practice of exerting so constantly for the last 
thirty years, that I cannot find it out ? I have tried it, and 
failed ; have entranced the mediums, but found no advantage 
from this power ; no advantage from clairvoyance, no help 
from the human will, ever so powerful, nor from any number 
of wills conjoined. Hence I conclude, that the laws of these 
phenomena are not included in psychology, nor electricity, 
nor any, nor all other branches of science that appertain to 
this world. That these phenomena are not produced in whole 
or in part by laws that appertain to the mundane, I do not 
affirm, but I do say, that if this, indeed, be so, those laws have 
not yet been discovered, and whether they ever will be or 
not may well be doubted. Superficial observers, witness a 
few of these things, and they write books, and articles for the 
press, saying, *' We have found it — we have found it." I, 
however, do not perceive any grounds for these statements ; 
my opinion is, that as yet, and possibly for some time to come, 
mortals will not be able to tell how these things have been 
done. 

I own, myself, conscious of a willingness to have the ra 
tionale of these strange things made out, if it can be done. If 
they can be accounted for by any laws already within our 

* It is well known, that Mr. Davis has offered a reward in good 
faith, of $iOOO. to any person who shall prove that these phenomena 
are produced oy electricity ; or, in other words, that they can be 
satisfactorily accounted for without reference to spiritual agency. 
Wliy do not those who have " discovered" so many times how these 
things are done, claim this reward ? The liow of the thing has been 
discovered many times, if we ean believe all we see reported in the 
papers. See New York Tribune, of Jan. 24, 1853. 



242 BOOK OF HUMAN NATURE. 

knowledge, so much the better. It will require so much the 
less labor to find them out. But, it is evident enough how 
mortals are puzzled with these things. Witness how much 
has been written upon them to show the cause, how they are 
done. And yet, the name has not been found, if it be not 
spirits. 'One after another writes a book, or an article for the 
papers — " it is" — " it is"—" it is" — " something," " but I 
don't know what 1" And editors review these books, and pro- 
fess to be very much interested and enlightened. It would, 
perhaps, be bordering upon the cruel to deny our fellow mor- 
tals the privilege of settling upon "something." They know 
very well " something" has come to pass, something very 
strange, very much out of the common way of things. They 
as well as we, must account for it in some way. So one calls 
it by one name, and another by another name. But why not 
let it name itself? We do not know what it is ; and, as long 
as we cannot account for it by any laws that come within our 
knowledge, why not let the subject explain itself? I put the 
question to all the branches of natural science with which mor- 
tals have any knowledge ; and ask what is it 1 The answer 
is, we do not know. Again, I put the question to this myste- 
rious something, itself, and ask, whol or what are you? And 
the answer comes back, sufficiently distinct and explicit — 
" We are spirits out of the human body." Hence it is in 
these remarks I use the term " spirits," because it is the most 
convenient, and also, because I do not know what else it can 
be. Until we know what it is, this word is as good as any 
other ; and, as none of us really know what it is, it may be 
spirits, after all. I am aware, that some, who do not seem to 
have had a very large experience, assume to know all about 
spirits. But, for myself, I do not know what a spirit is. I 
do not know what that other world is. I was never there. 

But, in admitting this much in respect to the spirituality of 
the cause of these strange things, I am reminded of that very 
large class of sectarians who believe or who attempt to do so, 
that the whole is the work of necromancy or the devil ! Well, 
perhaps it is, who knows so well as those who have the most 
to do with his satanic majesty. The clergy believe in the 
devil, they preach him, or stoutly affirm his real personal ex- 
istence in their sermons ; indeed, they make as much of him 
almost as they do of God. But as I never saw the devil, and 
never having found any evidence of his personal identity, I 
cannot, of course, admit of this summary disposition, of the 
matter ; there are conclusive reasons against it : — 

1. It has not yet been proved that there is, or ever was, or 
ever will be any such devil as is alleged in this objection. 
His existence is not provided for ia any one of the kingdom^ 



THE SPIRITUAL WORLD. 243 

of the universe ; no laws of nature develop such a being ; 
man has no wants, natural, spiritual, to be thus provided for. 
Hence I must conclude that this idea of a personal devil is a 
figment of human fear and ignorance, a term suggested by the 
evils and discords peculiar to the race. There is, indeed, one 
necessity for the existence of the devil, and that necessity I 
must believe to be the veritable cause of his being. That 
necessity is the ignorance of the race. Here it was, un- 
doubtedly, that all the devil there is, had his origin, and hence 
it is, that this same old devil, dies out of the faith and the 
minds of men precisely as fast as they become developed and 
informed in respect to nature's laws. 

2. There is no evidence sufficient to prove that these things 
could be done by the devil, even if we were to admit his per- 
sonal existence. 

3. This is an objection made by those not familiar with all 
the facts in the case. Those who have investigated this sub- 
ject the longest, and who know the most about it, take a dif- 
ferent view of it altogether. And, how then, are we to ac- 
count for it that those who have scarcely investigated it at all, 
are so very ready to bring the devil into the account ? Is it 
not an unfavorable sign when mortals seem to be so very 
familiar with the devil, when they are so ready to see him in 
whatever may occur? "The devil is always near when you 
are thinking about him." And shall we not infer from this 
proverb, that he is very near those clergymen and others who 
are so ready to call in the devil for the purpose of accounting 
for that which they cannot comprehend 1 Would it not be a 
better view to suppose God himself does these things'? And 
that they are " a part of His ways?" Does He not govern 
the universe? Can a straw fall to the ground without His 
notice 1 Why, then, are we so slow to perceive the benevolent 
design of our Heavenly Father, in thus arresting the attention 
of His children, and in a manner which induces them to inves- 
tigate the laws which appertain to the higher life, an immortal 
state of being 1 

Sugge$tion§. 

216. Perhaps the reader may now be willing to hear a few 
suggestions, which seem appropriate upon the threshold of this 
subject. They may assist his mind as they have my own ; — 

Not Ephemeral. 

217. 1. That it is not unreasonable to suppose, that these 
manifestations are neither ephemeral nor accidental, any more 
than the development of the human race can be said to have 
been so. The race has resulted from the infinite DEsmiJ of 



244 BOOK OF HUMAN NATURE. 

the Great Harmonia. And so have the same laws of eternal 
progression brought the race out of the external, or physical, 
into the spiritual. These laws have brought the race to the 
discovery of the magnetic telegraph, and to the process of 
daguerreotyping. They have developed, in fact, all that is 
now known of nature, physical, animal, spiritual, and divine. 

2. That these " manifestations" correspond with all of 
nature's other developments, especially in their beginning and 
progression. The first communications are imperfect and 
fragmentary when compared with those which follow. And 
nature's developments, always correspond with the wants of 
the human race, with the mediums through which they reach 
us ; with their sources, or the spheres, whence her communica- 
tions are received. 

Grade of Spirits — whence they come. 

218. 3. That communications from the spirits to this ex- 
ternal world, can come only from that class of spirits who, so 
to speak, are the least spiritual, or the nearest to the external ; 
and those mortals are media who most approximate to this 
class of spirits. The analogy of reason teaches, that in just 
so far as a spirit is spiritual it is removed from this external 
world ; and hence, the lower or coarser the spirit, the nearer it 
is to man's external senses, and the more easy it may be to 
communicate through mortals, by using their organs of speech, 
or moving their hands to write. 

Correspondence in God'^s Works. 

219. 4. It is worthy of notice that mortals should express 
surprise when they find that all of God's laws and works per- 
fectly correspond. In childhood we form ideas of things which 
we believe appertain to manhood, and then when we reach 
manhood we are surprised and disappointed to find things al- 
together different from what we had imagined. Thus the 
traveller reads descriptions of distant countries, which give 
him an ardent desire to see them. But on reaching the places 
about which he had read so much, he does not find things pre- 
cisely as he anticipated. Many things he expected to see he 
does not find in existence at all ; and other things which had 
been painted to his imagination he finds so very different from 
what he expected, that he can scarcely believe that he has 
indeed reached the land about which he had read and thought 
so much. 

Now, if it be difficult to obtain correct views of foreign 
countries, of whose language we have knowledge, and whose 
inhabitants we may have seen, may we not well suppose it 
more so for mortals to Obtain accurate views of that world, 



SPIRITS. 245 

which is so high, so much above the one we inhabit, that " the 
eye hath not seen it, neither hath the ear heard, neither hath it 
entered into the heart of man to conceive" what its peculiari- 
ties are 1 

Contradictions admitted. 

220. 5. Suppose that those who have had the best op- 
portunities for testing what purports to have come from the 
world of spirits, are ready, if need be, to admit most of the 
complaints made as to the discord in the spiritual communica- 
tions. The solution of this difficulty may be found in the 
suggestion already made. Communications from the lowest 
grade in the world, above us, must necessarily be fragmentary 
and imperfect, though they may be the best and the highest 
which can be given by the spirits nearest to this earth. In 
judging, therefore, of alleged communications from the spiritual 
world, it is obviously the safest course to look at them as a 
whole, to contemplate them all together. They* may come 
from a sphere we have not yet entered, and of whose exist- 
ence the great majority of mortals, up to this time, have 
doubted. What man most needs, therefore, is the conviction 
of his IMMORTALITY. He waiits to be made conscious of " an 
hereafter," and to know his true destiny. And the first thing 
demonstrated by these " manifestations," admitting them to 
come from spirits, is this great fact, that all human beings, 
passing through death, live for ever ! This stupendous truth 
has not yet taken sufficient hold upon the affections of mortals. 
No previous " revelations," to Jews or Gentiles, no " visions" 
of ancient or modern " seers," were sufficient to attract the 
attention of an external skeptical world. But now, whether 
there be any spiritual world or not, one fact is quite manifest : 
these so-called spiritual manifestations have brought more of 
the human family to a firm belief in such a world, than were 
ever brought to such a belief before, in the same space of 
time. 

Their Use. 

221. 6. Here, then, we might rest, but we go further, and 
affirm that these manifestations not only harmonize perfectly, 
with the great design of God, in their production, but they do 
also harmonise, when in themselves considered as a whole, hx 
more than the theological sects do in this world. Thus : — 

The discrepancies in spiritual communications agree in 
demonstrating that about man's future condition, which the 
theological sects themselves are not agreed, either in believing 
or teaching. As, for instance, these sects affirm and deny the 
same things in regard to man, and his state after death. One 



246 BOOK OF HUMAN NATURE. 

says the spirit is annihilated ! Another says death is such a 
change as makes man essentially different, immediately after 
death, in his moral character, from what he was before. An- 
other sect affirms that death renders a part of the human race 
worse off, eternally, than they were when in this life ! And 
most of the sects teach thai a man's love may be changed in a 
moment of time — that is, a man may steal, or commit murder, 
from the love of it, and the next moment, that murderer may 
kneel down, pray, repent, believe in Jesus Christ, and rise up 
from his knees "justified," and as innocent as if he had. never 
sinned ! 

We refer to these views here, because they are such as the 
sects themselves have always disagreed and disputed about. 
And now it is clearly manifest that if there be discord in the 
communications made from the spiritual world, these very 
discords settle one or all of these questions in respect to man 
and his condition after death. For while the spirits, taken 
together, do not endorse -either of the sects, as such, nor their 
peculiar theological dogmas ; yet their discordant " manifesta- 
tions" do unite in testifying that man's condition after death, 
(though on the whole better, as he inhabits a better sphere,) 
may be inferred from his love or life in this world. 

Tlie £xterMal, not tbe Real. 

222. We have seen (34, 35) that in no one of the king- 
doms of the universe is the external the real, or truthful. 
The external is the superficial, the imperfect, where we find 
discord and error. The external man is not the real ; and so 
we say the externals of all things are not the most essential, 
and cannot be. Reasoning from analogy, then, which is the 
highest authority we know of in this matter, manifestations 
made from the spiritual world to the external, must be the 
lowest and most imperfect. The external is not to be de- 
pended upon — never. We do not rest in philosophy, and es- 
pecially in spiritual science, upon the external. We must as- 
cend higher. We must penetrate deeper to find the real truth. 
Those, therefore, that look no farther than the external — 
who depend upon the mere appearances of the phenomena 
that occur, must fail, and be deceived, more or less. On this 
subject I find the truth has been so appropriately expressed by 
another, that I conclude it will be a favor to my readers to 
avail myself of what he has said upon it : — 

" We hear it said that ' Truth is immortal and changes not, 
and that error is mortal and cannot live ;' which, no doubt, in 
one sense, is an axiom well founded and true ; but, as ordina- 
rily understood, I conceive it to be highly questionable. 
Doubtless, it is true of what are denominated the exact 



SPIRITS. 247 

sciences, or those sciences which are founded upon quantity 
and number — such, for instance, as arithmetic, goemetry, 
mensuration, and the mathematical sciences. Twice two are 
four. The two angles of a triangle are equal to one right an- 
gle, and the sum of the squares of the base and perpendicular, 
is equal to the square of the hypothenuse, which are truths to 
all eternity. But, in the moral sciences, or those science^ 
which depend upon experience, induction and ratiocination, 
truths are only apparent, and eternally progress with the state 
of love and intelligence of the percipient and rational agent. 
Permanency, quiescency, or fixedness, is no part of their na- 
ture. Under the law of progression, they are ever changing 
with the ever changing universe, from lower truths to higher, 
as human spirits develop, and are more and more fitted to per- 
ceive, understand, and love them. There is no such thing as 
quiescency, or a state of absolute rest, in all the universe of 
God. No inertia, but only life and activity. Quiescency, 
vacuum, nothing, &c. &c., are absurd and ridiculous notions, 
and the truth is, when we come to look narrowly at them, 
we have no such ideas. They imply an absolute conception 
which we have not got, noy in fact, cannot have. 

" None but God sees things as they truly are in their in- 
mosts, because He is properly in the inmost of all things, and 
of course sees them in all their degrees of development or ex- 
istence, as they really are. To His perception they are not 
represented or appear to be such and such, and so and so, ac- 
cordingly as He views them this way or that way, or in this 
state or that state, but seeing them in the inmost, and from 
the inmost, sees and knows them as they essentially, abso- 
lutely, and truly are in themselves. But the perceptive un- 
derstanding, or spiritual vision of man, never passes beyond, 
or deeper than, the representative or apparent. To him all 
things appear, or are represented according to his state of 
life and intelligence, or according to his degree of develop- 
ment ; and this is not only so in this material or rudimental 
sphere, but strikingly so in the spiritual spheres, where those 
representatives or appearances relate to, and more directly 
depend upon, the specific quality of the recipient spirit. There 
every thing that can be seen or felt by him is in exact corres- 
pondence with his affections, and his degree of intelligence 
from those affections. Hence all things, from the lowest to 
the highest throughout the material, spiritual and celestial 
spheres, are to him but appearances, representatives, or im- 
ages and likenesses, each in its degree of the Divine Inmost 
of all things. 

" First consider appearances in the sensational world, and 
here we find all things illusive or only apparent. Philoso- 



248 BOOK OF HUMAN NATURE. 

phers have called those illusive appearances the 'fallacy of 
sense,' and have fully and clearly shown how, by reason and 
experience, we learn to, or do, instinctively correct them ; but 
have never satisfactorily explained the reason or use of those 
' fallacies of sense,' which, to the spiritually minded investiga- 
tor, is seen as part of the spiritual arrangement *of God's most 
glorious economy of the universe ! It is an illusion or mere 
appearance that we see distance — we see only the colors, out- 
lines, lights and shadows of things, and were we to open our 
eyes for the first time, all things would appear equally near 
to them, and, like the infant, we should stretch out our hands 
to grasp the moon or stars ; and this appearance is, without 
experience and reason, complete and perfect. But by obser- 
vation, experience and reason, we learn to correct this ap- 
pearance by the still higher one of perceiving distances and 
spaces, which, in their turn, are only appearances or repre- 
sentatives of the state of the spirit in the spiritual spheres — 
one spirit being distant from another spirit just in the degree 
their several qualities or states diifer. in like manner is it 
with the sense of sound. Were our ears opened for the first 
time, all sounds would be perceived as equally near them, dif- 
fering only in degree of loudness, &c,, and would be heard 
close at them, if not in our head. But experience and reason 
teaches us to locate sound, and we do so every day and hour, 
as we measure distance every day, hour and minute with the 
eye. So with our sense of smell ; we learn only by experi- 
ence and reason, to refer the fragrance of the rose to its pro- 
per object, &c. And so of our other senses. Thus, in the 
sensational kingdom, all is illusion or appearance. The sun 
appears to be but a little distance up in the heavens, and to 
rise in the east, and go down beyond the hills, or sink in the 
ocean of the west ; the stars to be only sparks of fire ; the 
street to form an angle, and close up at the end ; a straight 
river to flow and form a circle round you, &c. &c. &c. 
Moreover, if we alter the power or quality of our sensa- 
tional perceptions, we change the appearance of all material 
nature. Witness the microscope or telescope, the ear-trum- 
pet, &c. Thus all things appear to us according to the state 
of our senses, the law of things here in this kingdom being to 
appear to our senses according to their states, as it is the law 
of things in the moral and spiritual kingdoms to appear to 
us according to our receptive capacities, or the state of our 
moral and spiritual organisms. Not that the things and ob- 
jects of the material world do not really and substantially ex- 
ist, but that the manner and use of their existence only ap- 
pear to us, this way or that way, and for this purpose or that, 
according to our state, sensational, intelligent and affectional. 



SPIRITS. 249 

To us God works by illusions, appearances or representa- 
tive ; it is only an appearance that the candle burns of itself: 
it is only an appearance that the light of the diamond ^s its 
own; it is only an appearance that the tree grows of itself; 
it is only an appearance that the beauty of the flower is its 
own ; it is only an appearance that the eye sees of itself — that 
the stomach digests of itself, &c. &c. Moreover, it is only 
an appearance that I exist of myself ; that I love and hate, 
that I think, reflect, and will of myself. Swedenborg calls 
those ' real appearances,' by which is meant, not that I do not 
exist, will, love, hate, think and reflect, but that the appear- 
ance consists in my doing so, of and from myself ; not that 
the sun don't shine, the tree grow, the eye see, the stomach 
digest, &c., but that they appear to do so of themselves. The 
light of the diamond is not its own, neither is the light and 
heat of the sun its own, but only apparently so, yet derived 
from still higher and higher sources ; and as we progress 
from one state to another, and from one sphere to another, we 
come into view of the higher appearances or truths, and see 
that the light and heat of the material sun is not its own, but 
derived from the spiritual sun, &c. &c. &c. 

In the scientific world, the same great law of appearances, 
or apparent truths, prevail ; sciences perfecting and advancing 
as the perceiving, knowing and investigating agent progresses. 
To illustrate my meaning more clearly, let me instance in a 
single science, astronomy : — In the early ages of the world its 
rude astronomers believed that the earth was flat, that the sky 
was concave as it appears, and that the suns, (every day 
having a new sun,) were no larger than their heads! To 
them these were apparent truths, and from their learning and 
experience and observation, or their state of development, 
they were the highest truths they were receptive of. They 
believed them as complacently and implicitly as we now 
believe Herschel's system of astronomy, and to them they 
were true. In succeeding ages, when more extended obser- 
vation and experience had further developed the human mind, 
the astronomers got above this appearance, and believed that 
the earth was rotund and stationary, and that the sun revolved 
in an orbit around it ; which, in its turn, was the highest 
truth they were capable of, and was consequently true to 
them ; and, indeed, what greater appearances in nature are 
there than these 1 But when the human mind was still fur- 
ther developed, the astronomers of still succeeding times de- 
monstrated that the sun was stationary, and that it was the 
earth that revolved around it, &c., which was an apparent 
truth of still higher order, and was true to Newton and the 
astronomers of his time — an apparent truth which addressed 
11* 



250 SOOK OF HUMAN NATURE. 

itself to their receptive capacities. But lastly, the advanced 
astronomers of a period still later, have demonstrated the still 
higher apparent truth, of not only the sun and the solar sys- 
tem, but the whole astral system being translated in space 
toward or around some still vaster centre ! But is this latter 
discovery an absolute truth 1 Rather, is it not an apparent 
truth of a still more exalted nature 1 Now, what is thus true 
of astronomy, is also true of all other sciences, of all philo- 
sophy, theology, and religion : or of all the moral sciences as 
contradistinguished to the exact sciences. Look at theology ! 
Every man sees God according to his state of affection and 
thought. The malignant and revengeful man sees Him as an 
angry and vindictive God. The oppressor and persecutor sees 
and fears Him as a tyrant. The jealous and envious man, as 
a jealous and envious God. The proud and vain man, as a 
proud God, flattered with praise, adulation and servility The 
benevolent and kind man, as a good and merciful God ; and- 
the man of universal love, as a God of universal love, peace 
and harmony. And has not our ideas of the Divinity 
perfected, as we have perfected, steadily and unfailingly 
through all past ages 1 Still appearing to our spiritual percep- 
tions, more a man perfect and glorious — more good and wise, 
as we become regenerated, purified and exalted 1 And look 
at the social sciences ! Do they not perfect as our confrater- 
nal and social natures develop '? Constantly carrying us for- 
ward to higher truths, and more perfect systems of social 
order? The man sees things in a very dift'erent light from 
that in which the child sees them, and things appear to the 
philosopher in a vastly different way from what they appear to 
the rude and illiterate countryman. To the child the sun only 
appears a ball of fire, and the stars sparks, while the astro- 
nomer looks upon them as other planets and systems. To the 
refined taste of the connoisseur, the statue of the " Greek 
slave," is a model of symmetry, perfection, and beauty, while 
to the Cherokee or Choctaw, whose sublimest conceptions of 
human perfection, centres in '' Me big Ingen," it is con- 
temptible, deformed, and homely. They see or receive truth 
in different degrees, according to their development. All 
things thus appear to us just as we are fitted for, and capable 
of seeing and understanding them ; and abolish these apparent 
truths, in which created intelligences always have been, and 
always will be, and you not only abolish ' eternal progression,' 
but, to man, you abolish the symbolical or representative uni- 
verse. Man being, himself, only an ' image and likeness' 
of the Absolute, can perceive and apprehend only apparent 
truths. In the endless history of his existence, he is never 
out of or beyond; appearances, according to his state. They 



SPIRITS. 251 

are a necessary condition of his being-, and all the universe to 
him. The ' real reality- alone is the Jnmost, which is God ; 
and even of Him we "have no absolute conception. Finite 
intelligences are ever in apparent truths ; and the ' all of 
things' is thus a universe of types and shadows, (to us real 
and substantial,) symbolizing the Deity as a universal universe 
of ' images and likenesses of God !' 

" In the spheres beyond external nature, these appearance? 
or representatives, according to the state of the spirit, take on 
a seven-fold more representative character. All things there 
being arranged in correspondence with the qualities of the 
angels. Here things, being material outbirths of spiritual 
principles, have a certain fixedness of character and perma- 
nency of existence, although when seen by us, they are modi- 
fied, enlarged, contracted, adapted, or accommodated to the 
capacity and quality of our sensational perceptions, and studied 
;ind understood according to our degree of science and philo- 
sophy — while, in the spiritual spheres, the things seen and 
felt are, and cannot but be, in exact correspondence with the 
intelligence and love of the angels. Let me illustrate this by 
an example. Time as well as space, paradoxical as it may 
seem, are appearances, and actually and truly, or inmostly, 
there are no such things. Time represents states of life ; and 
space, the changes, or the difference between those states. 
In the spiritual world, time is viholly an appearance, accord- 
ing to the state ; and space wholly in appearance, according to 
the changes of, or difference between those states. We see 
that time, even here, is long or short, according to our states. 
With the lover awaiting the nuptial hour, minutes appear to be 
hours, and hours days ; while with the convict about to be 
executed, days appear to be hours, and hours minutes. To 
the profligate heir, the gray-headed ancestor appears to lengthen 
out his years far beyond the ordinary time ; whereas, was be 
now enjoying an estate dependent upon the ancestor's life, he 
would appear to die prematurely, &c. Thus the state of the 
spirit determines time, which is but an appearance from it. In 
the spiritual world, time appears thus long or short in precise 
correspondence with the states of the spirits, and there is no 
other admeasurement of it ; but in the material world, the 
fixedness and periodicity of things, serve as criteria of ad- 
measurement, and we are accustomed to refer to this external 
standard of time, instead of the internal one of state, from 
whence the appearance of time comes. In like manner with 
all things. The whole spiritual kingdoms are constituted of, 
governed, and controlled by those representative appearances. 
The evil spirit views around him, and dwells in the midst of 
infernal scenery, habitations, cities, ugly beasts and birds, 



252 BOOK OF HUMAN NATURE. 

owls, bats, snakes, crocodiles, &c., with a sterile and poi- 
sonous earth, and a gloomy, dark, and threatening sky, the 
correspondents of his evil affections, lusts, and concupiscences, 
and his false thoughts. They are the legitimate outbirths, or 
offspring of his own evils and errors, and though they appear 
to him actual and substantial, objective realities, yet they are 
really and truly subjective — dependent for their very life and 
existence upon his interiorly evil state. His own diabolic 
universe is around him, and he dwells in the specific hell of 
his own ruling evil affection ! There are around him rank and 
baneful vegetation — dark and doleful caverns, that lead down 
to lower depths of perdition — lakes of fire and brimstone — 
sunless chasms — ' regions of sorrow, doleful shades' — mud 
cities and filthy dwellings, &c. &c., his own spiritual crea- 
tions ! — there are ' dogs and sorcerers, whoremongers, liars,' 
&c., and with this evil state he can no more enter heaven, 
than a 'camel can go through the eye of a needle.' 

But the good spirit dwells in the Eden of his own re- 
generated affections, and has around him all that is corres- 
pondently beautiful, sublime, holy, and pure. If a spiritual 
angel, (or those whose ruling affection is the love of intelli- 
gence,) he sees in the pure, white, silvery light of Divine 
Truth, indescribably magnificent and lovely scenery — a Ceru- 
lean sky, and a Sicilian earth — palaces of jasper and crystal, with 
portals of silver, of the most superb and transcendent architec- 
ture, and glorious and effulgent with the bright light of truth — 
ever blooming gardens of intelligence, vocal with the songs of 
spiritual love — ever-gushing fountains of pure and crystal 
water — groves of palms, magnolia, and oak — doves, eagles, 
birds of paradise, and all the good, gentle, strong, and useful 
animals ; and his life and delight consists in the untiring per- 
formance of all spiritual uses to his fellow-angels and to man, 
by which, and in which, he is ever hastening on to still new 
and higher uses and delights ! And if a celestial or inmost 
angel, (or those whose ruling affection is the good of love,) he 
sees in the flame-colored and golden light of Divine Love, 
which pervades the celestial heavens with a holy warmth, the 
roseate beauties of a living scenery — an auroral sky and vital 
earth — oval palaces of sapphire and ruby, with portals of gold 
of a living architecture, and glowing with the steady, calm, 
holy, and golden light of Divine Love — flowers exhaling the 
pure loves of the celestials, and smiling with a joyous in- 
nocence in the vital aura — groves of olive and poplar, and 
fountains flowing for ever with the " water of life." But those 
beauties and transports which " eye hath not seen, ear heard, 
or heart of man conceived," fall far short of the beauty, 
^nd perfection, and glory, of the human form and character of 



SPIRITS. 253 

the angels there. The innocence and beauty of infancy there 
unite with the wisdom of age in the perpetual flower of youth, 
and their beauty such as few mortals here are worthy to unite. 
It is given to those " pure in heart" to see God.* 

Now, it is in the light of these truths that we must examine 
the question in respect to the external works of spirits ; tiie 
attempts of disembodied spirits to get back again into the 
external. What must be the "grade of such spirits "? How 
near must they be to the external world in order to obsess 
and possess]; it, to control the bodies of mortals'? Must they 
not be on a low plane in the spiritual to come in contact with 
the external body at all, and lower still when they take posses- 
sion of the external body, the external hand, the external 
organs of speech, and remain there as they do in all cases of 
the writing, speaking mediums. When a mortal who is low 
in his organization wishes to gain possession of the mind or 
the body of another who may even be above him, he addresses 
himself to the lower nature, or to those higher organs, that are 
accessible to him. He addresses the higher organs for effect, 
in order to carry out his wishes. 

Now, all mortals have an interior, a higher nature, which 
must be accessible to all the intelligences of the other sphere 
who are high, truthful, and good. This order of spirits would 
not come into the external if they could, and there is no neces- 
sity for it, because man's higher or interior nature is open to 
them. Hence, when they are attracted they speak to the 
higher nature always, and never to the lower. And thus we 
perceive the use that is to follow in these lower manifestations. 
Mortals perceive from them the great fact of a spiritual world, 
and the necessity of becoming inherently good, of loving good- 
ness for its own sake, and loving truth, for truth's sake, indeed, 
that they may thus be receptive of spiritual influences from 
above, which shall flow into their inmost or higher nature. 

This dependence upon the external, this consulting the 
external, and relying upon it for advice, for direction and coun- 
sel, in matters of faith, is the great error of the external 



* W. S. Courtney, Esq., Spirit World, Vol. 3, No. 5. 

+ These terms may be .said to be nearly synonymous. They both 
come from sedeo, to sit ; as from this act is signified occupaney-j pos- 
session. Obsession has been used to signify the first act by which 
spirits besiege mortals ; and possession, the state of the case after the 
physical or nervous system is yielded up to the control of another dis- 
embodied spirit. They may signify, when speaking of spirits, what 
PaifAeJ^ism signifies when speaking of human beings ; as it seems mani- 
fest that spirits may be, and often are obsessed or possessed, controlled 
by mortals, as often, perhaps, as that the latter are possessed and con- 
trolled by the former. 



254: BOOK OF HUMAN NATURE. 

world. It is the stumbling- block of infidelity, the chief im- 
pediment in the way of spiritual or mental culture. We cannot 
dispense with the external, because it is of use, though of a 
lower grade ; we cannot divide what God hath joined together. 
Hence, it becomes our duty to examine all phenomena, all 
causes that phenomenize or externalize themselves. But their 
coming out into the external is to make us acquainted with the 
internal whence they come. Such are the analogies of reason 
which direct us what to do with external spiritual manifesta- 
tions now under consideration. 

Cliaracteristic ]>«tails. 

223. In the detail of facts connected with this subject, three 
methods are presented for choice. I must either undertake 
the description of all that I have witnessed, which would fill 
a volume of itself, and much of it mere repetition, or I must 
g-ive the results merely, without describing the processes by 
which they were arrived at ; or, what will perhaps be, on the 
whole, the most acceptable to my readers, if I select the most 
important facts, or those which seem to me to be so — those 
which are really characteristic of the whole subject, and 
classify these under their appropriate heads. We want all the 
facts, and want to see them in the order, precisely, as they 
occurred. Those facts are the most important which are cha- 
racteristic of the entire subject. If the phenomena occur in 
difl^erent localities, in different families, and we find them 
modified or aflfected by the views and feelings of mortals 
among whom they occur ; if in some features they are con- 
trolled by certain external circumstances, and in others they 
are not ; it ^s desirable to know in what respects they all 
agree, because, if in one or more of their principles, elements 
or methods, we find they do all agree, then it becomes more 
easy to arrange them so as to deduce the laws by which they 
must directly or remotely be originated. 

TESTS OF CONGENIALITY. 

224. It is found to be an indispensable condition in all the 
external works of departed spirits, that it must be done by the 
assistance of a congenial human associate,^ who must be pre- 
sent at the time ; or, they must be done through a medium^ 
who acts and speaks for the spirit. But very few spiritual 



* Though there seem to be some reasons for the discrimination 
here made, I may nevertheless use these terms synonymously. The 
"associate" is not so much possessed and under the control of spirits 
as the passive medium. 



SPIRITS. 255 

manifestations have ever been known w^here these conditions 
of association or mediamship were not observable. Without a 
congenial associate, or mediam, nothing can be done. With- 
out the telescope we cannot see the distant planets ; without 
a window, the light does not shine into your dwelling. And 
as the spirit selects a mortal for a medium who is congenial 
with the spirit, so it follows — that no other mortal can receive 
communications or responses through that medium who is not 
also congenial, or thought to be so, with him. You must be 
more or less congenial with the medium, for congeniality with 
him, is love for the spirit who responds through him. And 
corresponding with this congeniality will be the freeness of 
the responses made to you, and vice versa. I attend a sitting 
with the medium A., with whom I am congenial, and through 
A. I get " beautiful responses." But I attend a sitting with 
B., with whom I am not congenial, and I can get no responses 
at all, or if they do come, they will be very faint and con- 
tradictory. My " guardian spirit," therefore, is not the same 
spirit when speaking to me through B., that he is when ad- 
dressing me through A. 

Let us now attend a sitting with A. The circle is harmo- 
nious, and all things proceed pleasantly. The sounds are 
made freely, physical bodies are moved, and what are called 
" tests," are spelled out. But, just now, one of the circle 
evinces a desire to look under the table, or to watch the me- 
dium's feet. The sounds stop in a moment. After a while, 
the sounds commence again, feebly, when another of the cir- 
cle removes the cloth from the table, under or on which they 
seemed to be made. All is silent again. The spirit will not 
brook suspicion, not even of the associate or medium, and 
much less of itself. The sitting with A. is now progressing 
again. The manifestations are quite satisfactory, when there 
enters the room a person who is not at all agreeable. He has 
expressed an unfavorable opinion of the medium. The sounds 
stop. The spirits are urged to proceed, but they refuse ; till 
finally, perhaps, it is spelled out to this effect—" that man 
must leave the room," and so he has to go. 

Congeniality, therefore, with the medium, not only implies 
confidence, love, and sympathetic views and feelings, but the 
nearer the temperaments are alike, the better. That is, if the 
spectator is very much like the medium in his temperament or 
disposition, he will receive much more satisfactory answers. 
Because, always, when the medium is said to be " perfectly 
developed," in such cases the spirit will tell nearly or quite 
all that the medium knows or believes to be true ; and when 
the spectator is like the medium, the spirit who associates with 



256 BOOK OF HUMAN NATURE. 

the medium can do the same for the spectator which it does 
for the medium to whom it is more directly attached. 

On this principle of congeniality, circles are or should be 
formed ; and in some localities it is carried so far as to ad- 
mit no person to the sitting who is not designated by the me- 
dium, or which is the same, by the medium's associate spirit. 
In such cases, no stranger can be present, no matter how much 
of a believer he may be in spiritual manifestations. 

I have attended scores of sittings where the spectator 
would, by pressing his tests, repel, what purported to be his 
guardian spirit, some near and dear relative. Anon, he goes 
to another medium, and he gets responses freely — all is right. 
But he goes back to the first medium, the offence is remem- 
bered, and he.is chided by this same "guardian spirit" for 
being so repulsive. 

And if a company of the merest rowdies, (all alike,) com- 
pose the circle, and are not offensive to the medium, they get 
responses freely. I was once present where some of this 
class composed the circle, which was surrendered to them for 
the time being. They called for the spirit of a companion 
who had been executed for burglary only a few weeks before ! 
The sounds were made freely to them, and they had a jolly 
time of it. This case is referred to, to show what is meant 
by congeniality. Had some pious deacon entered that circle, 
and c hedged the mirth of those men, the spirits would have 
been offended of course, and refused to proceed. 

TESTS OF KNOWLEDGE. 

225. I do not speak of intelligence, but of that actual know- 
ledge which spirits manifest in this manner of this external 
world. Of their intelligence we speak hereafter. One may 
be a very intelligent personage, and yet have but little actual 
knowledge of any given subject. That there are certain de- 
grees of knowledge of this external world in these manifesta- 
tions, is one of the first facts that arrests the attention of all 
who witness them. But as to the nature and the extent of 
the knowledge either of this world or any other, which is 
evinced by the spirits, it is not so easy to decide. At least 
spiritualists are much divided on this subject, some ascribing 
to the spirits high degrees of intelligence, even bordering on 
omniscience, and others unwilling to admit that they know 
much even of any thing at all. At first most of the receivers 
of these things seemed to take it for granted that a disembod- 
ied spirit must necessarily be very wise. Questions were put 
to them in respect to Theology, past, present and future ; 
Philosophy and Science, this world and the next, God, heaven 



SPIRITS. 257 

and hell. But the answers soon proved to be contradictory, 
puerile, and unsatisfactory, which very much lessened the re- 
liance which mediums and their friends put upon such testi- 
mony. Without knowing what grade of spiritual intelligences 
approximated near enough to this earth, to be able to give an- 
swers at all, it was taken for granted that any questions on 
Astronomy, Mathematics, or Geology, might be appropriately 
put and truthfully answered. However, a more enlarged ex- 
perience in these things has taught mortals, that an invisible, 
apocryphal spirit is not the most reliable source for informa- 
tion, perhaps, on any subject. 

All the tests of knowledge of this world which have ever 
come within my own personal observation, put with all the 
well authenticated cases I have seen published — all of them, 
without exception, partake of the following characteristic 
traits : — 

Sympathic. 

226. In no case have I witnessed, nor have I ever heard of 
any very reliable details of what I should call independent 
knowledge, that is, knowledge either of this external, or of the 
spiritual world, as much above the human, as cases of what 
we call independent clairvoyance. It may be said to be the 
general rule, that no knowledge is evinced, or but very little, 
except what is from sympathy either with the medium or some 
other congenial person. What the medium either knows or 
believes to be true, whether it be so or not. 

Thus : — two gentlemen attended a sitting, when I was pre- 
sent, whom we will call Z, and G. One of them, Mr. G. 
wrote his name in a book that was kept by the medium for 
that purpose. They were both entire strangers to the medium. 
The next day, Mr. Z. came alone ; and on asking his " guar- 
dian spirit" to tell him his name, the spirit spelled out the 
name of his friend Mr. G., and did not know his own name ! 

In a casual conversation which was overheard by the me- 
dium, C. who was a stranger to me, she misunderstood me to 
call my " guardian spirit," by the name of E. Whereas it 
was her misapprehension of what I said, as I have no know- 
ledge of any such guardianship. The next evening, I at- 
tended a sitting with C, and had a series of responses from 
" E.," every word of which was false. 

I was about to visit a noted medium in Providence, R. I. 
Before leaving home, I said to my " guardian spirits," (three 
in number) will you go with me, and attend a sitting with Mr. 
M. " Yes." So it was agreed that they should go with me, 
attend with me, and notice all that was said and done. I 
arrived at Providence, and went to Mr. M.'s door precisely at 



258 BOOK OF HUMAN NATURE. 

9 A.M., as I examined my watch, particularly. On seeinjr the 
lady of the house, a sitting was agreed upon, at 1 o'clock 
P.M. At the appointed time I was present. The "sounds" 
were made very loud indeed, purporting- to come from Dr. 
Franklin, addressed to the medium ; for Dr. Franklin was the 
medium's associate spirit. I asked permission to converse, 
which was granted. Dr. Franklin said a relation of mine was 
present, who would converse with me. I put a dozen ques- 
tions, every one of which were answered incorrectly. Then 
I addressed myself to Dr. Franklin, and asked, " Are you the 
spirit that once dwelt in that external body, which mortals 
called Dr. B. Franklin?" The answer was "no."' Then I 
asked again, please to tell me, as I want to know the truth, 
did you make all these responses tome just now., purporting to 
come from my relative"? Answer, "ye^." 

Well, on my return home, I met a friend in the cars to 
whom I narrated the circumstances of this sitting, as I have 
here. This is worthy of notice, because, if my " guardian 
spirits" were not present at the sitting, but were present in the 
cars with me and my congenial friend, they would, of course, 
hear my account of what had occurred. After giving him 
these details, he said to me, I have just been at your house, 
and had a sitting with E., but we could not get any responses, 
as we supposed the spirits were with you. The guardian 
spirits of E., purported to be mine, also, who promised they 
would go with me to Providence. 

On returning I sat down with the medium E., and called on 
my guardian spirits to tell me what had occurred. They 
could not tell me a word ; not the hour when I called on Mr. 
M., nor the time when I had the sitting, nor what occurred 
there, not one word. But, I said, jokingly, to E., "you had 
a sitting while I was gone, and could not get any sounds." 
" O, yes" replied E., " because, mother, (the spirit) was with 
you ! I know the spirits must have told you that I had a 
sitting." I did not inform her that I had seen my friend H. 
in the cars, who gave me that information. So, after urging 
and trying to get some account of my visit, for a day or more, 
and, finding I could not, I said to the spirit, " Will you tell 
me how I knew that E. had a sitting yesterday and could not 
get any sounds V The reply was " yes, the spirits told you !" 
Was not this sympathetic knowledge J The spirit had no 
knowledge of what actually took place, but it had a knowledge 
of the medium's mind, and sympathised with it. 

In passing along one of the streets of Boston, on my way to 
a sitting with a good medium, Mrs. P., my attention was 
deeply interested with the condition of a little colored boy 
whom I found weeping in the street. I stopt some time with 



SPIRITS. 259 

him, conversing and striving to comfort him. I pitied him, as 
his case affected my love of children very much indeed. On 
reaching the medium, one purporting to be my guardian spirit, 
responded by the sounds, when the following dialogue ensued : 

Q. Did you come down here with me 1 

A. Yes. 

Q. Did any thing in particular interest me on the way ? 
— (I came through the common. This was known to the 
medium.) 

A. Yes. 

Q, Will you be kind enough to tell me what it was ? And 
when I put this question my mind was upon the poor little boy 
whom I had left crying. 

A. Yes. — Spelled out — the green grass, and the trees, on 
the common. 

In each of these cases, it was manifest to me, that my 
*' guardian spirit," so called, was, in fact, the associate spirit 
of those mediums. 

One great complaint made of this subject has been based on 
this fact, that so generally, so nearly always, if a mortal calls 
for a fictitious spirit he will receive an answer, and in this way 
any amount of falsehoods have been communicated. Call for 
any one you please (of your relations, living or dead) and you 
will be likely to get responses, if the medium is congenial and 
(^oes not know that you deceive in your questions. If the me- 
dium suspects deception, you will either get nothing, or a re- 
buke it may be. 

A good medium A, was visited by a widow lady who 
believed she had been defrauded of a large sum of money. 
Her uncle had declared before he died, that he sTiould make 
this widow his sole heir. When he died, his will bequeathed 
all his property to some one else. The niece, a poor afflicted 
woman, now calls on her spirit uncle, to knovr if he did ac- 
tually will that property to her or not. I heard the answers, they 
were to this effect : — " I made two wills. In the first, I gave 
the property to you. I always meant you should have it. 
But I cannot tell what I did with my first will, nor can I tell 
who wrote it, nor who witnessed it ; nor do I know what has be- 
come of it; nor do I know how I came to make a second will, 
and give my property to another." Here, too. was sympathy 
with the belief of that widow, but no knowledge of any thing 
above her own mind. 

My position here, is not that no knowledge is ever evinced 
by the spirit, except what can be traced to the laws of sympa- 
thy with the mind either of the medium or with some congenial 
person ; there may be now and then a case where we might 
not be able to trace any sympathy at all, with any mortal, or 
any facts, existing or known to mortals at the time. But such 



260 BOOK OF HUMAN NATURE. 

cases are the exceptions, and they are very rare indeed. And 
even when they do occur, they do not reach above the power 
developed in good cases of independent clairvoyance. 

Very Limited. 

227. The very ^reat desire I felt on first witnessing these 
phenomena to have them prove to be what they were taken 
for, that is, unmixed goodness and truth, made me extremely' 
unwilling to see and feel as I am now compelled to do, the 
meagre limits which do so evidently circumscribe the extent of 
the knowledge actually possessed by the spirits who thus address 
man's external senses. How many, many, very many times 
have I attended sittings where all appeared to be congenial and 
pleasant, and listened to the most feeling and urgent appeals 
for the most simple items of knowledge, and made all in vain 
of those who professed to be " guardian spirits." A young 
man came to a sitting and received a " most beautiful com- 
munication" from what purported to be his mother. He, at 
first put no tests, but allowed the spirit to spell out " a mes- 
sage" to the following effect : — 

" My dear son ! This is the spirit of your mother. She 
constantly watches over you for good. You must be a good 
boy. I am glad to see you here, and that you take an interest 
in these manifestations. Be careful of your health. Come 
here again." 

After which the following dialogue ensued : — 

Son. " Mother, will you tell me the disease you died of?" 

M. Hesitating a few moments, the answer was, " Yes." 

&. " Will you spell it ?" 

M. "No." 

<S. " Will you designate it, if I write it down with a number 
of others?" 

M. "Yes. Consumption." 

The answer was wrong. The son next asked, " Will you 
tell me my given name ?" The answer was " No." 

<S. " Will my mother please tell me the reasons why she will 
not tell me my given name ?" 

M. "No." 

S. " Will my mother please tell me the name of my 
father ?" 

M. "No." 

»S. " Will my mother be so kind as to tell me her own given 
name, the name she was known by in this world ?" 

M. " No." 

<S. " Will mother please tell me the reasons why you will 
not answer either of these questions ?" 



SPIRITS. 261 

M. " Yes, I do not wish to communicate any more to-night, 
it is so difficult." 

Thus it was more difficult to give the name of her child, 
than it was to spell out a sentence, in which a reason is given 
fur not giving the name ! Whether the true reason were given 
or not, the candid must judge. 

We now attend another sitting. The medium is one of the 
best. The circle is congenial. All is pleasant. The spirit 
responding purports to be the father of his two sons, who were 
present listening to the raps. One of the sons performed an 
act of filial love for his affectionate father only a few hours 
before his death. The spirit declares that he remembers all 
that took place, but, though urged and entreated to tell, he can- 
not do it. 

A congenial friend of the medium, A. holds a conversation 
with what purports to be his spirit mother. She had a defective 
eye, and the son begs of her to tell him either what the defect 
was, or the organ that was implicated. The spirit promises to 
do so, " next time," " next time," and so on, and finally refers 
to another medium through whom it should be done. He goes 
to that other medium, B. and asks for the test, and gets the 
following answer : — 

*' I prefer to come here." He then returns to A. and asks 
for it again, when the spirit spells out, " I have forgotten the 
number of the street." The gentleman tries in vain for some 
two years to get that test from his mother. He finally, with 
an own brother, visited another strange medium, asked for his 
mother and the test, when the following answer was rapped 
out, " My eye." This took the man by surprise, supposing it 
must come from his mother. He now says, " Mother, do you 
know this man (his own brother,) by my side "?" Ans. " Yes, 
it is your uncle !" 

Here it looks as if the associate spirit of that medium, by 
clairvoyance perceived the idea of that test about the eye 
in the mind of the party ; but did not see far enough to know 
that the man by his side was his own brother. 

That the knowledge of the spirit is partial and very limited 
might be inferred from seven-eighths, if not nine-tenths of all 
the sittings ever held. Witness how it is. A call is made 
for the name of the spirit, and instead of announcing the name 
the spirit bore on earth, how many frivolous excuses are often 
made. Sometimes, it is forgotten, or " spirits do not retain 
their external names ;" or you must write the name with a 
number of others and thus afford the spirit the chance of 
feeling it out of your mind. A number of names are writte", 
when pointed at, the raps are made to a number of the names, 
and you can take your chance which is meant. Long mes» 



262 BOOK OF HUMAN NATUEE. 

sages are spelled out often, about many things which involve 
no test of knowledge, but the moment you ask for the name of 
the spirit responding, they are silent.. 

Ask for the age of the spirit, v/hen it left the body, and you 
get no answer, or you are told spirits have passed beyond time 
and space, they have no time-pieces, they keep no account of 
time. Ask a spirit mother how many children she left in this 
world, and how seldom one is found who can tell. Ask a 
spirit father whether his wife be living or dead, and often you 
will find he cannot tell. Ask a spirit brother how many 
brothers he left, how many sisters, and how many are in the 
spiritual world, see if he can tell. Sometimes they do answer 
a part of the question correctly, but they always err enough to 
show how very limited their knowledge is of this world. And 
in no one thing have I marked so manifest a want of know- 
ledge as in respect to the life or death of others, at a distance. 
Thus, in the case of a relative long absent, the spirit respond- 
ing, though a near relative, does not know whether he be dead 
or alive. J have known them to report their friends in that 
world, when they afterwards proved to be in this. 

How often have I seen the spirit nonplussed, and baulked by 
the most appropriate and candid questions put to them. All 
about it seemed as if they did not know what to do ! Noticing 
this at one time, I said to the spirit, " Why don't you turn 
upon mortals, and ask them questions they cannot answer? 
Ask them, for instance for the name, or age, of a great, great 
grandfather." And sure enough, at the very next sittmg 
Dr. F. came, and supposed himself in solemn communion with 
a departed friend, when he asked some test question, involving 
knowledge. The answer was as above, " What was the name 
of your great, great grandfather ?" The Dr. was much divert- 
ed, and thought the spirit really sympathized with his large 
causality. 

A communication was made to me, at a sitting I attended, 
about another person at a distance. Every word uttered was 
proved to be false. I asked a spirit, who purported to be 
above the common order, for an explanation of the causes 
which led to such deceptions. The answer was most impo- 
tent and unsatisfactory, and convinced me of one of two things, 
either that the spirit really did not know, or if it did, it was 
very low in goodness to lie, as it did to me. And then, after 
a few months, 1 asked again for information of this deception, 
and the associate spirit of the medium "owned up," and said it 
did the whole because she thought she was obliging me ! 

A mirthful young lady dressed in mourning, attended a 
sitting where I was present, personifying a broken-hearted 
young widow. Sheteceives free and loud, loving responses, 



SPIRITS. 26S 

from a spirit purporting to be her deceased husband ; it is to the 
following effect — 

" My Dear Wife I I am happy to see you here. I am 
with you all the time. I saw you weep for me at my funeral. 
Kiss the little one for me. Good bye." 

The pretended widow is affected to tears, and the " sounds'" 
are made very loud, as they always are, where there is intense 
love between the parties. Now, not to speak of the base 
falsehood in all this, we ask, how much knowledge it evinces? 
The medium, on finding out the cheat, felt very much morti- 
fied, as mediums have often been ; thus showing that had the 
spirit known enough to perceive that tliat was a widow in 
disguise, it would have said so, and exposed her on the spot. 
Nor do I believe there is a medium in the country but 
through whom the spirit might be deceived in this manner. 
Indeed, in this very way they are often deceived, and in a 
way that shows that if the spirit had known at the time the 
real facts in the case, it would have exposed the cheat, and 
thus done far more to prove the spirituality of the thing, than 
all that did actually occur. 

As good a medium as there is to be found, while riding in 
the cars had her pocket-book, containing all her money, sto- 
len by a man who sat by her side. It was in her pocket, and 
her pocket had been pinned. Where was that " guardian," 
vigilant, watchful " spirit," while that thief was thrusting his 
hand into the pocket of that medium? Echo answers — 
Where ? 

Conjectural. 

228. Not one who has noticed these modern manifestations 
with a vigilant and candid eye, can have failed to perceive 
how many, how very many of the answers to questions involv- 
ing knowledge, are of the conjectural kind. I am in New 
York, and a spirit in Boston sends me word that she would 
attend the medium C, and suggest to her associate spirit, a 
test, to be spelled out to me, which would be, " E. is sick," 
or "E. is well," as the case might be. On calling for the 
test, I asked what I called my guardian spirit in Boston 1 An- 
swer, " Your favorite rose." This was conjecture, or per- 
haps I should say, hardly that. 

A medium happened to hear one day that a certain skeptic 
was coming to see her. Her associate spirit cautioned her to 
suspend her sittings for a while ! But it proved a mistake — 
that skeptic was not in the neighborhood, and had not been. 
Four sisters, one of whom was a medium, were kept alarmed 
all night, watching against the approach of robbers,- who, as a 



264 BOOK OF HUMAN NATURE. 

spirit told them, would break into their room and rob thera. 
Nothing of the kind ever occurred, 

A spirit tells a medium to travel from Illinois to Boston, in 

order to see Mr. , who will do him good. Nothing bat 

a whim of the spirit. And thus Mr. G., a highly respectable 
medium in Springfield, Mass., was sent to Boston to be uni- 
ted with a medium there, which would result in something 
wonderful. But when he got to Boston, nothing was done 
unusual ; and the next day he returned home to see his sick 
mother. 

A man was sent in this way from Middletown, N. Y., to 
Boston, and was told he would find a certain person in the 
latter place who would assist him. He did as he was told — 
staid in Boston at considerable expense, which he was scarce- 
ly able to bear, for a week. Finally, he went to a medium, 
E, for " consulting the spirits." It was spelled out to him — 
" You have been deceived and humbugged by low and evil 
spirits. Go back to your home, and hereafter learn to follow 
your own judgment." He asked who this advice came from, 
and was answered, " E.'s mother." 

A very large proportion of all the answers I have ever 
heard made to questions for names, dates, places, &c., were 
given from mere conjecture. I have known a spirit to rap a 
half-a-dozen names, and to indicate as many diseases of which 
he died. A spirit says to Mr. L. " Go home, you are needed 
at home, your son is sick." Now, his son was sick when he 
left home a few minutes before. He hastens home, and finds 
his son asleep in bed. 

And so of all, or most of the attempts to get information of 
absent persons or places. Ask your guardian spirit to tell 
you precisely, (not indefinitely) what is going on at a distance, 
and you will find the answer will be indefinite, so you cannot 
tell what is meant ; or it will be untrue in nine cases out of 
ten. It was one of the first features of this subject that ar- 
rested my attention, and pressed upon my mind the query in 
respect to possession, that the spirits were always unable to 
give any definite information respecting their relatives, as to 
whether they were also in the spiritual world or not. Thus 
if one ask what purports to be his spirit-father, whether his 
mother, or uncle, be dead or alive 1 The spirit will conjec- 
ture, often wrong, but they never seem really to know pre- 
cisely how it is. 

TESTS OF TRUTHFULNESS. 

229. There is a difference between a falsehood merely, and a 
lie ; as the latter is a falsehood known to be such, and utter- 
ed with the design to deceive. It is the design that makes 



SPIRITS. 265 

the crime. There may be many falses, or mistakes, arising 
from misapprehension and ignorance, so that where we are 
satisfied there was either no motive for deception, or no at- 
tempt to do so, we make no implication of wrong. 

I do not speak of the numberless statements made by spirits 
which we cannot test, as to whether they be true or false. It 
is an unexceptionable characteristic of all their utterances, so 
far as I know, that they do vastly prefer to speak of things in 
respect to which they cannot be tested at all. Herice we 
have what is uttered by the numerous writing and speaking 
media, the lectures, the pilgrimages, the communications 
from " the sixth circle of the second sphere," or the sixtieth 
circle of the twentieth sphere ; it makes no difference. The 
great drift — the rivers, the seas, the oceans of their utter- 
ances about " life in the spheres," and other matters, may be 
true or false ; it may come from the brains of the medium, 
inspired or abnormally excited by a spirit who does not know 
so much as the mortal himself, as is sometimes the case in 
Pathetism. The complaint is, not of the communications, 
but of their want of those traits and adjuncts that would ena- 
ble us to demonstrate the source or the grade of spirits whence 
they come. To me it does not seem consistent to rest upon 
the shallow external appearances which many do. A lecture 
is given, it may be, by a spirit purporting to be John Murray. 
The lecture, in itself, contains some good sentiments. Now, 
says the superficial observer, it makes no difference who the 
spirit was, as long as we know what he utters is good. Yes, 
but suppose the spirit utter a lie, in saying his name is John 
Murray — is that good 1 To me it does make a vast deal 
of difference, to have even good sermons preached, if the min- 
ister who utters them is low enough to falsify in respect to 
his identity. No sermon, no *' pilgrimage," no lecture, no 
communication tastes so sweet to me, if it come from lips 
that utter lies. 

If we look, then, at this feature of our subject, it seems to 
wear an aspect of the 

Political, 

230. The artful, the cunning ; for these traits must always 
attach to those persons who do not utter a straight-forward 
story, bold, undaunted, unflinching, unimpeachable, and truth- 
ful. No telling a little truth for effect, to keep up appear- 
ances. 

A spirit came to me uncalled, purporting to be one who 
stood high in the Theological world while in the body. He 
was then a Unitarian. I asked him how Jesus was born, and 
ho said, " Naturally, like all other men." 

A fe'o' wfeeks after, I wois asso6iat«ld with a friefid who hid 
12 



266 BOOK OF HUMAN NATURE. 

recently inclined to the views of the New Church, in respect 
to the miraculous conception. We now put the same question 
to this personage, when he affirmed the Swedenborgiau view 
of this subject, as he always has done since. 

Having a manuscript letter written me some years ago by 
this spirit's son, I took it in my hand, and holding it under the 
table, near my daughter the medium, I asked him to tell me 
what it was. He spelled out — " It is of no consequence." 
But I thought differently, and urged him to tell me who wrote 
it. Whereupon, it was (by the spirit, I suppose) drawn com- 
pletely out of my hand, arid fell upon the floor. 

The letter was written in Boston, but addressed to me in 
New York, and the address w^as in sight. I asked the spirit 
to tell me where the letter was written ; and the answer was 
"New York." 

What purported to have been my guardian spirits after the 
time here referred to, all affirmed the Swedenborgian doctrine 
of Jesus and his birth. So I have known spirits to utter some 
sentiments under such circumstances, that it left little or no 
room to doubt but that it was done, in many cases for mere 
effect; as when one spirit asserts universalism, or the Shaker 
notions, or som^ other in order to gain the more confidence 
from mortals. If I go to a Methodist medium, where I am 
not known, my " guardian spirits" are all Methodists ; if I go 
to a Universalist medium, incog., they are all staunch Univer- 
salists, and so of the whole circle of the sects. I attended a 
sitting in Utica, N. Y., where there were two good mediums. 
Mrs. L. one of them, was a firm Methodist. The other me- 
dium was an adopted daughter. I at first addressed myself to 
the associate spirit of Mrs. L. :— - 

" Am I agreeable to you V 

"Yes." 

" Will it aflford you pleasure to converse with me ?" 

"Yes." 

" Will you suffer my guardian spirits to respond to me 
through you 1" 

" Yes." 

I then asked my own guardian spirits the following ques- 
tions, each of which was answered by the sounds through 
Mrs. L. in the affirmative : — 

" Do you believe in total depravity 1 Do you believe that 
some of the human race will suffer eternal punishment, in the 
popular sense of this term 1 In vicarious atonement 1 

I then requested Mrs. L. to leave the room, while I conver- 
sed with the same spirits through the other medium. She 
had no sooner done so, than the sounds were made, denying 
every word that bad been said before. 



n 



SPIRITS. 267 

" Do you believe in total depravity, in the atonement, and 
eternal punishment "?" Answer "No!" I then asked who 
made those other answers to me, and it was spelled out thus : 
— " Mrs. L.'s father," who purported to be her associate 
spirit. 

And thus I have always found it without a single exception, 
where such trials could be made without exciting any com- 
bativeness on the part of the medium. In this case Mrs. L. 
supposed I believed as she did. My daughter, of course, 
knew that I did not. This same daughter, who is a good me- 
dium, visited incog, another good medium in East Boston. 
She got loud responses, every word of which was fulse ! 
And so it is, the associate spirit of the medium through whom 
the sounds are made, either makes the sounds, or they are 
made through that spirit in such a sense, that no other per- 
sonality can be made distinctly to appear when the circum- 
stances are such as enable you to test them, without suspicion, 
or deception on the part of mortals. After attending this 
sitting where she was falsified to by a spirit, E. the medium 
asked her associate spirit, why she did not respond to her 
through that other medium : the answer was to this effect : — 

" Because I could not. Tne responses are always made by 
the associate spirit of the medium. And, as there was no 
congeniality, I could not make myself known to that spirit." 

Now, what shall be done when we find spirits uttering 
truths for effect, or uttering them under such circumstances, 
that we cannot separate the true from the false 1 

Insincere. 

231. The testimony of a witness in a court of justice is 
always vitiated if he be detected in mixing one particle of the 
false with what is known and admitted to be true. To be 
credited, the witness must be sine (without) cera (wax), he 
must be sincere, pure ; without any alloy of falsehood. He 
must not falsify in any conceivable degree, however small or 
insignificant the fact may seem to him to be. 

Now, suppose these manifestations made to men's externals 
by spirits, be always and everywhere made by the associate 
spirit who attends or possesses the medium. If this be so, or, 
if it be so to the extent that seems highly probable from any 
amount of facts that might be detailed then, most of these 
manifestations must be mixed more or less with the false, 
because this fact is concealed. Nay, it is not only politically 
hid and kept out of sight by the spirit who possesses the me- 
dium, but it is flatly denied whenever, and as often as respon- 
ses are made, which falsely feign to be from some other spirit. 



268 BOOK OF HUMAN KATUKE. 

I attended a sitting with my aged mother, who was at the 
time much interested in the subject, and ready to believe all 
the spirit uttered. She was unknown .to the medium. The 
responses were by the sounds, and purported to come from her 
mother. Some dozen questions were answered, and every 
one of them was false. I then said to the associate spirit of 
the medium, " Will you answer me now truthfully 1 Tell me 
who has made all the sounds here to-night ?" The answer 
was, " I made them all." This I suppose to be a mixture of 
truth and falsehood ; the falsehood was, in making those 
answers as coming from another, and the truth was, in con- 
fessing it, after it was done. Indeed, I scarcely ever put the 
question to the associate spirit of the medium in a candid, kind 
manner, but what I got a similar confession in reply. 

A sitting was attended at East Boston, by some seven 
gentlemen, the most, or all of them were strangers to the me- 
dium ; when the associate spirit of the medium responded to 
each of them, told them their names, and the names and ages 
of relatives who were dead. When they got through, one of 
the company not having thought of it before, put the question, 
to know what spirit had given those responses ? The answei 
to this query was spelled out, " The associate spirit of the 
medium." 

Here we see the spirit who possesses the medium clair- 
voyant of what was in the minds of six or seven different men 
at once ; and it answered them accordingly. It may not be so 
often, that spirits may not often be sufficiently clairvoyant to 
be able to read the minds of all in the circle ; but, probably 
they do it always when they can. 

I attended a sitting with Mrs. H., now in England, giving 
sittings for the sounds. Some eight gentlemen present were 
answered promptly and accurately. One of the company pro- 
posed the following test. He held both hands in his pockets. 
In his right hand, he held an article he knew ; in his left he 
held one he did not know. The spirit agreed with some re- 
luctance to attempt to tell what both those articles were. In 
his right hand they spelled out " ace of spades ;" he drew his 
hand from his pocket and showed he held that card in it. 
The spirit then described what was in the left hand, but on 
taking it from his pocket, it proved to be incorrect. It was a 
conjecture which did not succeed. The gentleman held a card 
also in his left hand, the name of which the spirit could not so 
easily obtain as the man did not have that one in his mind. 

The False. 

232. That the real false does very much attach to these 
manifestations is now everywhere admitted, though indeed, a 



SPIRITS. 269 

very few do, singularly enough attempt to deny it. They 
have not merely a mixture of truth and falsehood, but they 
must be admitted often to approach so near the evil and 
malignant that it may not be an easy matter to put a correct 
estimate upon them. 

A young lad becoming a medium for the sounds, what pur- 
ported to be his grandfather, a most truthful and excellent man, in 
his day, responded through him, and induced the lad's father to 
attend the new church, then just commencing in that locality. 
That very spirit afterwards admitted to me, that he was not 
the lad's grandfather ; and he said moreover, that he (the spirit,) 
lied, he loved to lie, and he meant to lie. 

Spirits at Stratford said they lied, that they were in hell ; 
and they charged mortals falsely with the same crime, as I 
know. 

I have known the associate spirit of a medium to utter what 
was unqualifiedly and mischievously false about mortals ; and 
have had accounts where they have falsely reported themselves 
as having been murdered, while the persons they pretended to 
be, were living. They even went so far as to give the name 
of a respectable citizen of the place, as the murderer ! When 
detected in the fabrication, the spirit was asked to explain how 
all that came to pass 1 " Why," said the apocryphal invisible, 
" I did it to see how much you would believe of it." 

A man in New York was told by a spirit, that he was to 
circunnnavigate the globe, and stand before Queen Victoria. 
The spirits would even take out all his old teeth and put in a 
set of new ones, before morning. He was told to look in his 
wash-bowl in the morning, where he would find all his decayed 
teeth. He did so, but found they were not there. 

These falsehoods are characteristic ; and such traits of these 
manifestations as you do not find any account of in the periodi- 
cals devoted to this subject. * 

By special invitation of a friend, I attended a sitting with a 
medium at his house. The reports I had heard of this medium 
had impressed me quite favorably, and I approached her with 
a feeling of candor and charity which inspired my hope for 
satisfactory results. Before leaving my own house for this 
sitting, 1 had an interview with my own guardian spirits, and, 
by my request, they solemnly promised me that they would not 
accompany me to the sitting 1 was about to attend ; they said 
they would stay away, that I might see what the results would 
be under such circumstances. 

Well, I had no sooner sat down at the table with the medium, 
when loud sounds were heard upon the floor or table. After 
some preliminary conversation by Mr. B., I inquired if there 
was a spirit medium present ] The spirit answered " Yes," 



270 BOOK OF HUMAN NATURE. 

and said that her brothers in the spirit world were the mediums. 
I asked them to tell me how many spirits I had brought with 
me, and who they were 1 They answered some fifteen ques- 
tions, every one of which answers was false ! Nay, not 
one question was answered correctly, as far as T knew. Some 
of the answers were egregiously, palpably false ! Indeed, the 
spirits, whoever they were, not only refused to answer many 
questions, but every one they did ansvi^er, was, as far as I 
knew, answered wrong. The conclusion was forced upon my 
own mind, that the whole was done by the spirit medium 
attending that lady. 

When I asked the spirit to tell me when he left this world, 
he spelled out, " I pleasantly and sweetly fell asleep in Jesus." 
And what the spirit's motive was, in answering at all, or in 
declining to answer some appropriate questions, and answering 
those it did answer, falsely, the reader must determine for 
himself. 

It may be an easy matter for some good people to theorize 
upon this subject, precisely as they would do of the mineral, 
vegetable, or animal kingdoms, if they did not know much as 
to the use of either. They might say, in exploring a new 
country, " All good ; all beautiful ; all pleasant ; no hills ; no 
caverns ; no precipitous rocks ; no thorny rose-bushes ; no 
ravenous beasts ; no poisonous serpents ; all, all concord ; no 
evil." And so an inhabitant of some distant planet, who 
might, perchance, visit our earth ! O, says he, most beautiful 
to behold ! No evil ; no war ; no slavery ; no discord here, 
surely ! And precisely so, many of us were wont to reason 
when first we heard " voices from the spirit land." We could 
not believe, we could not realize how the inhabitants of that 
bright world could utter what was not true, either by accident 
or from design. But how it is we have all yet to learn. What 
the inhabitants of thaf "better land" may be able to utter to 
one another, we do not know ; but we do know that their com- 
munications to man's external senses are attended with many 
obstructions, and where the method of communication is em- 
barrassed with so very many difficulties, we must suppose it 
• next to impossible to get pure, unadulterated truth. And yet, 
mortals publish books on this subject, and to encourage people 
to rely as much upon communications, of which the above 
forms a part, as they would upon the advice of a " kind, 
experienced parent."* 

* " Many now in this city consult their guardian bpirits with as much, 
nay, more confidence, than they would nkind and experienced parent, 
and willingly yield to their suggestions and directions, in all matters^ 
both great and smalV — Hist. Spiritual Manifestations, in FJdlade^ 
phia, published by directions of " the Spirits." 



SPIEITS. 271 

I am satisfied that very often the " responses" are made, not 
by the spirit who purports to be speaking, but by the spirit 
medium, who takes charge of the spirit circle, interiorly, as 
the human medium does externally. And when certain an- 
swers are attempted, then, by the spirit-medium, errors are 
committed, of course. We are assured by reason, justice, and 
all spiiritual analogy, that when an honest, candid mortal, from 
the love of goodness and truth, asks for responses, such 
mortals do not bring or attract the false. And yet mortals who 
are honest, truthful, peaceful, and pure, get answers from 
spirits who falsify and deceive. And all this may be, when the 
human medium is perfectly honest at the time. We all know 
how much more easy it must be for mortals to be deceived by 
invisible spirits, than it can be to be deceived by human 
beings. 

At the invitation of Mr. B., a medium for the sounds, [ 
called at his house, for a sitting. A number of other gentle- 
men were present. A spirit purporting to be Mr. B.'s father, 
announced himself as the interior medium, and said " the 
apostles St. Paul and St. Luke had responded through him 
and his son, in New York." But he gave us distinctly to 
understand that the " apostles" " St. Paul and St. Luke," who 
had responded through him, in the city of New York, or 
Williamsburgh, were not the " apostles" that had responded ia 
Auburn, N. Y. The Auburn " apostles" were false prophets ! 

I asked him to tell me what spirits were present to respond 
to me. He said W. was present. I asked him if that spirit 
purporting to be W. would truthfully tell me what disease he 
died of J His age when he left this sphere? And where he 
died ? The spirit answered, that he " died of inflammation of 
the brain, aged 57, in the State of New York, near the city of 
New York," every word of which was utterly false I On my 
stating this fact to the circle, the spirit called for the alphabet, 
and spelled out, " Mr. Sunderland lies." Mr. B. repeated all 
the statements I had made, and one by one asked the spirit if 
that was a lie, but we could get no farther responses or expla- 
nations. Each of the other gentlemen asked for the *' sounds," 
but could get nothing, except the instruction which such 
developments seemed calculated to afford, and dull scholars, 
indeed, we must have been if we did not learn something from 
such as these. 

TESTS OF PERSONAL IDENTITY. 

238. The spiritual world is that world which is absolutely 
above and beyond the external world, and which cannot, 
therefore, come within the reach of man's external senses. 
As we become spiritual we leave the external ; and as we 



272 BOOK OF HUMAN KATURE. 

bring matters within the sphere of the external, they must 
leave the purely spiritual. It may be admitted as a spirit- 
ual axiom, that spiritual personal identity cannot be demon- 
strated in the external world. Those, therefore, who rely up- 
on testimony from spirits as to their identity, which is ad- 
dressed to the external senses, must be exceedingly liable to 
be deceived. How is this to be done ? Can it be done ? 
Can you unite the square and the circle? Consider how 
much the spiritual is discreted from the external. No two 
kingdoms in this sphere differ so much — no two are so wide 
apart. 

Now, you hear sounds made by a spirit. You ask who it 
is, and receive for an answer, that it is your own father. 
Your father is in the spiritual world. So you ask him other 
questions, that are answered correctly, so far as they refer 
to your relative. And so, long interlocutory conversations 
are carried on between you. But, has it occurred to you, 
that you do not, and you did not, and you cannot know who 
it was that you put your^r^^ question to ] You did not see it, 
you only heard a few sounds. All is uncertain as to who it 
was. You do not, and cannot know. You may believe and 
hope, but you do not know. 

What perfect infatuation, then, for mortals to go on with 
supposed examinations of witnesses, when they do not know 
with whom they are conversing, nor the person to whom they 
put the first question ! Nor do they know that the person 
who answered the first, staid to answer the second ; nor, in- 
deed, whether any two questions were answered by the same 
person ! You may take it for granted, if you choose to do so, 
when you hear a few " raps " repeated, that it is done by the 
same spirit ; but as to proving it, that is altogether out of the 
question. 

1. Knowledge, or Clairvoyance, does not demonstrate per- 
sonal identity. In human affairs it is not so. An individual 
might answer any question in respect to another person, but 
this would not prove his own identity. This is made out, 
chiefly, by the sense of sight, the highest of the external 
senses, and the one that it is the most difficult to elude or de- 
ceive, in a court of judicature. 

But in these manifestations, we have but little use for sight, 
and in proving identity, none at all. Even in the case of ap- 
paritions, this objection is not obviated ; for a vision is far 
aside from the normal use of the external sense of sight. 

That the knowledge evinced by spirits cannot be taken as 
proof of identity, is now more manifest than formerly, since 
it is proved that spirits who know the most of the mortals 
with whom they converse, will even falsify the worst. 



THE SPIRITUAL WORLD. 273 

At one time I held a conversation with a friend in the hear- 
ing of a medium, in respect to the probability of there beingr 
associate spirits for every one of the mental faculties ; so that 
when causality was active, a congenial spirit flowed into it — 
when mirthfulness was active, a mirthful spirit flowed in, &c. 
A few days after, I was visiting in a family where that me- 
dium was present, when a spirit announced itself by the 
sounds, and desired to be considered my " intellectual feeder," 
and evinced some knowledge of my life, as it told me, within 
a month, how old I was ! I asked the spirit where it was 
from, and the answer was, " from the planet Herschell." I 
refer to this case, because the spirit showed more knowledge 
of me than any one I had ever conversed with before, and yet 
his account of himself showed how utterly unreliable he was. 
He '* never lived in an external or human body !" 

2. When personal identity is to be made out, in cases 
where important interests are pending, ex-parte testimony, in 
one's own favor, can never be of much weight, even if it be 
allowed. But in these manifestations we have nothing that is 
above this. We question invisible witnesses, and allow 
them to testify in their own behalf, as they please. We can- 
not cross-examine them, for as soon as this is attempted they 
are off". They cannot be held to any kind of an examination, 
when the object is avowed to be, the testing of their integrity. 
How, then, under such circumstances, is the fact of personal 
identity to be made out? 

3. This whole question of personal identity is very much 
embarrassed and obscured by the well known and admitted 
falsehoods that spirits have uttered about it. As far as we 
know, more untruth has been told about this feature of the 
subject than any other. And while this can be accounted for 
on Swedenborg's theory of " the spirit-world," (not the spi- 
ritual world,) it puts the fact beyond all doubt, that these man- 
ifestations have been over-estimated in the reliance which 
some have put upon them : — 

" That spirits speaking are little to be believed. Nothing 
is more familiar to spirits than to say that a thing is so, or so, 
for they think that they know everything, and indeed solemnly 
assert that it is so. Even if there were a hundred, one would 
say differently from another, and, indeed, for the time, with 
confidence, as if it were so, when yet it is not so. As soon as 
they notice any thing which they do not know, they immedi- 
ately say that it is so, when yet they do not know." — Spirit- 
ual Diary, 1902. 

This is said, not of the angels which constitute heaven, but 
of spirits, who are in the hells. The following is relevant, 
also, if not perfectly satisfactory : 
12* 



274: BOOK OF HUMAN NATURE. 

" It has many times been shown to me that the spirits 
speaking with me did not know otherwise than that they were 
the men who were the subject of thought ; and neither did 
other spirits know otherwise ; as yesterday and to-day, some 
one known to me in life, (was represented by one,) who was 
so like him in all things which belong to him, so far as they 
were known to me, that nothing was more like : Wherefore, 
let those who speak with spirits beware lest they be deceived, 
when they say that they are those whom they know, and that 
they are dead. 

" For there are genera and species of spirits of a like facul- 
ty ; and when similar things are called up in the memory of 
man, and are thus represented to them, they think that they 
are the same person : then all things are called forth from 
the memory which represent those persons — the words, the 
speech, the tone, the gesture, and other things ; besides that, 
they are induced to think thus when other spirits inspire them, 
for then they are in the phantasy of those and think they are 
the same."— /^>. 2860, 2861. 

Now, if some of my readers fear I may have under-rated 
this feature of our subject, I ask them to assist me in dispos- 
ing of the following facts : — 

(1.) That, with two good mediums in my own family, 
through whom these manifestations have been made for 
years, and yet, through my own children I have never from 
first to last been able to get the first offer of a " rap" from 
my own adult relatives in the spiritual world ! There are 
about eight of them in all, and in this number is the spirit of a 
beloved sister, whose hand I held while she closed her eyes 
in death ; one tenderly loved, and over whose dying bed I 
watched with an affection which twenty-five years have hot 
been sufficient to lessen. Yes, that sister dear ! Why has 
she never come to me 1 Why, through my own dear children, 
whom I so much love ! Through those children I have seen 
multitudes of others comforted. There the brother has met 
what purported to be his spirit-sister ; the sister, her spirit- 
brother ; there, parents and children have seemed to mingle 
again their tears of sweetest joy. And often during this pe- 
riod have I asked for that sister beloved ] For that father 1 
For that affectionate relative who gave my external name, 
and with paternal love fondled me on his knee, and called me 
his own, his darling boy ! Alas ! for me — no dear father, no 
sweet sister, no affectionate relative, tips the table, makes the 
raps, or spells out any heavenly messages, in the manner of 
which I have been speaking. How is this? And why is it? 
But observe :— 



SPIRITS. 275 

(2.) Through any other medium except my own children, 
and especially in circles where I am not known, I get any 
amount of " raps" and responses from my adult relatives who 
are not in the spiritual world ! When the responses are given, 
and purport to come from my adult relatives who are dead, 
they are never accurate ; always, without one single excep- 
tion, they have contained falsehood enough to convince any 
person they were not the spirits they purported to be. But, 
as often as any way, the responses through strange mediums 
come to me from my friends who are not dead. And this 
evinces the ignorance of the spirit-medium, because it cannot 
be supposed that any spirit of a very tolerable degree of in- 
telligence or shrewdness, would risk so much in attempting to 
guess and conjecture whom it would do to personify, and how 
the different questions should be answered in order to give the 
most satisfaction. 

Now, the difficulty I have here described cannot be solved 
by supposing that my views of these things have repelled 
my own relations, when sitting with ray own children. I 
listened to these responses through them for years before I 
was driven to my present views ! When I began this inves- 
tigation, I believed, through my own children, the responses 
were what they purported to be. And now, if I have dif- 
ferent views, the spirits, or this whole subject, have forced 
those views upon me. My own opinion is, that the state of 
mind in which I have approached this subject has very much 
facilitated all my investigations, and I now have the acquisi- 
tion of important knowledge as the sweet reward of my la- 
bors. 

Tests of Intelligence. 

234. Whatever there may be in these manifestations from 
spirits taken as a whole, whether " light," as it has been 
called, or darkness, or a mixture of both, it is for all. 

So it is said of the glorious sun ; it shines for all. But its 
rays do not reach all alike. On some they fall perpendicularly ; 
on others they fall obliquely ; and others, still, may live in 
places where its rays cannot reach them at all. 

The infinite God is the equal Father of all. And yet all do 
not equally recognize him as such. Some of his children are 
matured, and able to see the relation they hold to Him. 
Others are so little advanced from childhood, that they do not 
resemble the Father so much as those farther advanced. 

Whatever be done by any part of the spiritual world must be 
for the good of all. AH enter that world at death. And the 
vast majority enter it ere they are far advanced in this world 
as we know. Hence, whatever the divine Father may suffer 



276 BOOK OF HUMAN NATUKE. 

or order, directly or indirectly, any grade of that world to do, 
to or for this sphere, must be for the good of all human beings. 
Imperfect, contradictory, futile, and " worthless," some of 
those manifestations may seem to be to some of the children, 
yet they are from that world where we must all live ; and 
what they should signify it concerns us all to know. 

It is the appropriate work of true philosophy to examine 
this subject in all its different phases, whether it purport to 
come from " apostles" or " devils," for such are the per- 
sonages who, we are assured, are engaged in it. Thus, one 
mortal speaks of his conversations with " St. Paul," " St. 
John," " Solon," " Swedenborg," " Dr. Franklin," and others. 
Another speaks of the " Circle of Apostles and Prophets," in 
which are " Daniel," " St. Paul," " St. Luke," " St. John ;" 
and he writes poetry " dictated" by " Schiller" and " Samuel 
Wordsworth." And in the same circle, at Auburn, we are 
told that conversations had been held with " Lorenzo Dow," 
" President Madison," " The Cayuga Chief," and other digni- 
taries, ancient and modern, who have passed away from this 
earth Indeed, it would seem to be quite common for any and 
all classes of mortals, high or low, in respect to intelligence, 
to call on spirits, and who get answers with the " name" of 
"George Washington," "Lady Guion," " Zac. Taylor," 
" Richard Rush," " John Murray," " Thomas Paine," " Old 
Scratch," " Sam Slick," " Beelzebub," and even " Jesus 
Christ!" 

And the inference is legitimate and irresistible, even that 
if the spirits who have given us this new kind of literature, in 
the shape of books, lectures, &c., be what they purport to be, 
we must be highly favored indeed, by the "light" of their 
superior intelligence. Hence, we perform an act not merely 
of simple justice, when we test their intelligence, but we- do 
precisely as they themselves have directed. One of the very 
first communications made to me in this way, was in these 
words : " Judge us by our works." 

I have, already referred to the strange occurrences that 
took place in Stratford, Ct., in 1850.*' I have no doubt, what- 
ever, but the letters given belov/ were the entire work of spi- 
rits out of the human body. They were written without any 
human medium as far as we could ascertain. And I incline 
to the opinion that the manifestations at Mr. Phelps's house 
have come from discordant spirits, and are to be considered as 
the natural reflections of the theology of which Dr. Phelps has 
been and is one of the regularly authorized exponents. From 
a child, he has been a receiver, and for the last forty years, a 

^ A, C. 2009. See, also,' 5614, 5648, 10,215, 5225, and 1434. 



SPIRITS. 277 

teacher of those views of God, heaven, hell, and the devil, 
which constitute the Calvinistic creed of the old, dark, dis- 
cordant theology — a theology for which he speaks, when he 
says he believes these things are " to be set down as among 
the devices of Satan, by which he is promoting his work of 
destroying souls." 

To this judgment I have been conducted, step by step, not 
from an examination of Mr. Phelps's case alone. The mani- 
festations at his house, though in some respects, perhaps, ex- 
ceeding in the marvelous anything that ever was knov/n or 
witnessed before, yet they form but a small item in the great 
whole of similar things. To judge of them, therefore, accu- 
rately, we must reach, as it were, the centre of a circle, which 
includes God, nature, law, the universe, the whole heavens, 
and the doctrine of correspondences. Indeed, without this 
doctrine, we do not proceed at all in our attempts to compre- 
hend the world of " spirits," or the phenomena manifested 
from it. 

Spiritual Writings. 

235. The first specimens of spirit writing connected with 
these modern spirit manifestations, as far as has come to my 
knowledge, were, some mysterious characters (addressed to 
the organs of marvelousness, as these things always are) 
scratched, apparently, by a blunt instrument, on a turnip, which 
was thrown against the window of Dr. Phelps's middle parlor, 
as if the design had been to throw it into or through the par- 
lar window. 

March 11, 1850, some of these characters were written on the 
pants of a lad in the family ; and, at another time, they were 
written on his blue silk handkerchief, and again on his cap 
with chalk. 

It has often been asked, whether any meaning could be 
drawn from these figures, or whether any explanation had been 
given of them? 

That these hieroglyphics were made by insane spirits, I do 
not doubt at all. Spirits that are above, in truth and goodness, 
would not, could not, attempt to communicate with those below 
in language which no one could understand. Dr. Phelps 
showed me some poetical translations made by Mr. A. J. Davis 
of some other hieroglypbical writing, which had been also 
thrown down by the discordant spirits in Mr. Phelps's house. 
They had sent the lad, who was a medium, away, in hopes 
thus to avoid the disturbances. Soon after, a paper was 
thrown down, by that unseen power, with some Hebrew and 
other characters upon it, a part of which Mr. Davis interpreted 
thus : — 



278 BOOK OF HUMAN NATURE. 

" Fear not, when he returns — fear not, all danger now is o'er ; 
We came, we disturbed thy house, hut, shall no more j 
Believe us not evil, nor good, till we prove 
Our speech to humanity, our language of love. 

You may take this home. 

The explanation will, hereafter, come." 

But the sequel has proved, that if the spirits did really 
make the promise, as above interpreted, that they w^ould no 
more disturb the dwelling of Mr. P., they falsified, as we 
knou^ they have done in many other instances. Indeed, they 
have made but very few^ communications at Dr. Phelps's as to 
matters oifact, of which we have knowledge independent of 
them, but which have proved to be utterly false and frivolous. 
Here is a specimen of their frivolity. A paper was thrown 
down near Mrs. Phelps, while in her parlor with a number of 
ladies, having written upon it the following with a pencil. The 
paper was scratched as if the pencil was worn down to the 
point, which was the case with a pencil laying on the side- 
board near by : — 

" SiK, — Sir Sambo's compliments, and begs the laddy's to accept as 
a token of his esteem." 

A lady in Mr. Phelps's family had jocosely requested one 
of the spirits to write a letter for her, which she could send to 
her relative in Philadelphia. The spirit complied, and threw 
down in the presence of the family, only a few minutes after- 
wards, a piece of paper, which is now before me, and from 
which the following is transcribed. The writing was done 
with a pencil, and has certain peculiarities about it which were 
recognized at once by all the family : — 

"Dear Mary, — I have just time to write and tell you I am well. 
Give my love to Miss Kennedy and her uncle. Also Mrs. and Mr. 
Davis. Also to Sarah. Good bye. — H. P. Devil." 

The lady's name who requested this letter was " H. P.' 
Other papers have been similarly written upon, and signed 
" Sam Slick," and " Beelzebub." Sometimes papers were 
thrown down, signed with the names of persons, or a person, 
whom the family had known in Philadelphia, but who died 
some years since. Here is a specimen : — 

"If, if the Spirit purporting to be Abner Henry Benton. You can 
correspond with the two latter, at some future time. — Tho. Hewitt." 

The following was in pencil, like all the others, and seems 
to be written in the same hand. It is on a small piece of 
paper, and superscribed, " E. Phelps." 

" If you promise not to wri^e that I told you, I will not throw any- 
thing all this week, as a trial." 



I 



SPIRITS. 279 

The above will be better understood, perhaps, when I state 
what Dr. Phelps, himself, related to me. He wrote a letter 
on business, containing, among other things, drafts for money, 
which he was about to mail for Philadelphia. On one page of 
his letter, he had made a remark about " the spirits," to the 
effect, that " if the disturbances did not cease, lie should re- 
move from that house." On returning from his dinner to the 
table where he had written and left the letter, he found that 
page containing the above allusion torn off and gone ! He 
asked " the spirits" what they had done with it, and they 
told him. He looked in the place designated by the spirits, 
and found that part of his letter torn up. And the spirits then 
sent him the above, desiring him " not to write" what is above 
given ! Indeed, Dr. Phelps assured me that he had often 
written letters which the spirits forbade his sending till they 
had read them, and they had repeatedly directed him where to 
put his letters, so that they (the spirits) could get them. 

Letters written hy Spirits. 

236. The following are letters written by spirits, and 
thrown from the air in the presence of Dr. Phelps, or some of 
his family. It may seem too much for some of my readers to 
believe, but I have the same evidence to convince me that 
these letters were really written without human hands, that I 
have that the other occurrences took place in Stratford, re- 
ferred to elsewhere. These letters were thrown down from 
the air, July 28, 1850. They were both in the same style of 
writing, but bore the signatures of two different orthodox min- 
isters now living in Philadelphia. Nor can the reader fail to 
notice how strikingly the religious allusions in these letters 
tend to confirm the view I have suggested with regard to the 
true solution that is to be given of the spiritual manifestations 
at Stratford. They are the reflections of a discordant theo- 
logy, made by those spirits who owe their discord to that very 
theology with which their language and manifestations so 
evidently correspond. 

These letters, like many others, were addressed to Dr. 
Phelps. There are allusions which are much better under- 
stood by all who are acquainted with the parties referred to ; 
as, for instance, " St. Peter's" in the second letter, is a Pro- 
testant (Puseyite) church. 

" Dear Brother. — The Lord is dealing bountifully with 
his chosen people. Brother Barnes admitted to the church 49 
last Sunday, and Brother Parker 34 to-day. Brother Converse 
has had the cholera ; and Brother Fairchild has grown so 
fleshy as scarcely to be recognized. Our friend Mr. Tarr has 



280 BOOK OF HUMAN NATURE. 

buried his wife. She died of consumption. E. Tarr is 
married. Brother Mahn being suddenly inspired last Sunday, 
spoke so eloquently and so loud, and used such majestic action 
as to be quite done up for a while. He broke a blood vessel. 
Old Tiers has gone crazy, and is shut up in a mad-house, or 
rather a hospital. The Hewitts have gone into the country 
to spend some time. That is all the news. 

Your faithful brother in Christ, 

R. A." 

" Dear Brother. — The millennium truly is coming. The 
day of the Lord is at hand. We are adding countless numbers 

to the altar of the Lord. Brother A became inspired last 

Sunday to such a degree, that his soul took its flight to the 
regions above, and has not yet returned. The Catholic 
Churches, St. Joseph's and St. Mary's, were burned down. St. 
Peter's also ; I believe that is a Catholic church. Brother 
Mahn was preaching from the text, " Resist the Devil," &c., 
when he was suddenly overturned by an invisible power, which 
frightened him so that his hair turned white in 5 minutes. 
Brother Barnes, to render his church more attractive, is going 
to have opera singing and dancing every Sunday, P. M. Mrs. 
Alexander Tower, old Mr. Tiers, Brother Fairchild, and Mrs. 
Sommerville, are going to dance. I think they will find it a 
very lucrative employment. Jane and Martha still progress in 
Hebrew. Your affectionate brother, 

W. R." 

I examined the originals of these letters closely, and have 
no doubt at all, but that they were written without human 
agency, in any form. They are, indeed, a curiosity. And 
being the first specimens of " spirit writing," and especially of 
letter " writing" that occurred connected with these modern 
manifestations, they are worthy of notice, as showing the 
grade of spirits by whom this work was immediately com- 
menced. Since these were written, pamphlets and books 
have been published in large numbers, " written" by mortals, 
but purporting to come from spirits. 

LITERATURE OF SPIRITS. 

237. One of the first of this class is now before me,* and 
purports to report the expositions of select portions of the New 



* " Price 50 Cents. — Exposidon of the Prophetic Scriptures of the 
New Testament, as received, entirely, from Spiritual Communications 
lit Aubnrn, Cayuga Co., N. Y. By J. M. Brown, E. H. Baxter, E. A. 
Benedict, Celestia Sherman, Milo Webster, Sen., D.D., T. Benedict 
C. Coventry, Samuel Brown, and G. W. Hyatt." 



SPIRITS. 281 

Testament, made by " St. Paul, Timothy, St. Peter, and St. 
John, the Divine," with a preface, by one who says, " I am 
Lorenzo Dow." It is a jumble of cant phrases, bad grammar, 
errors, and contradictions. Indeed, the writers do not attempt 
anything towards showing us its authenticity. Here is a 
specimen of its style : — 

Lorenzo Dow is made to say, " Love and mercy have got to 
dwell in you all lirst." Timothy is made to utter the follow- 
ing : "Thou insolent and ignorant servant, go thou into the,' 
gulf of ignorance.'''' " The gospel dispensation ended on the 
tenth day of the seventh month, 1844." [! ! !] 

Timothy and St. Paul are made to contradict one another 
thus : Timothy says, " Dogs represents (grammar 1) humble 
Christians." P. 38. But Paul, p. 83, says, "Dogs are those 
who love and make a lie." Thus it must follow, that some of 
those spirits, were, according to their own showing, nothing 
but " dogs." 

This pamphlet abounds in cant phrases, such as " Redeemed 
body," "Prophetic Scriptures," " Close of the Gospel Dispen- 
sation," &c., &c. Thus : — Timothy is made to utter the fol- 
lowing : " He that will give up his good name among men, 
shall fall heir to the redeemed body." P. 44. And, p. 70, 
the same cant is put into the mouth of " St. John." " That 
they may fall heir to the promise ;" and " all purified spirits who 
\i2ise fallenjieirs to the first redemption ;" and on p. 91, this 
same silly twaddle is put into the mouth of St. Paul, who is 
made to say, " Ye shall fall heirs to the promise," &c. But, 
here is the secret of this whole concoction, on p. 82, where St. 
John is made to say, " The opening of the seventh seal repre- 
sents the fulfilment of the prophetic word as regards its teach- 
ing by Mr. Miller and others, on the tenth day of the seventh 
month, 1844, Jewish time, which was the 24th day of October, 
1844." 

How it must sound to hear " St. John the Divine," say " Mr. 
Miller!" And to hear him saying, "The spirit is nervous 
fluid, inseparably connected with the mind." Paul teaches, 
(p. 94,) that " persecution" is signified by " being buried iri 
Baptism ;" but John says, " Baptism means preaching." 

It very much reminds one, of the " Book of Mormon." 
Having had an interview with two of the men whose names 
are on the title page of that pamphlet, from one of them I 
obtained some information as to the manner in which the 
"Spirits" purporting to be " St. Paul," "Timothy," and "St. 
John the Divine," expounded the " Scriptures." Portions of 
the New Testament were read by one of the company ; then 
" one of the brethren," by the name of Brown, explained^ or 
gave his own views of the passage, and the " Spirits" " rapped" 



282 BOOK OP HUMAN NATURE. 

approbation or disapprobation ! The results are seen in tho 
pamphlet, which favors the views of Mr. Brown, with but few 
exceptions. When Mr, Brown jand the other brethren could 
not agree, then the spirits decided how it should be. 

I had an interview, also, in Auburn, N. Y., with the 
" Spirits" above referred to ; and do not marvel that they 
should forbid, as they did, their followers reading the writings 
of A. J. Davis. Mr. Davis, and those who sympathize with 
him, these " apostolic spirits" pronounce infidels ! Of course. 
But it can be of but little consequence what those spirits deny 
or affirm, who cannot give any satisfactory account of their 
identity. I asked them to submit to a test, by which I might 
know who they were, but they refused ! And I may add, that 
the manner in which Mr. " St. Luke," and Mr. " James 
Madison," and Mr. " St. Paul," slunk away and declined a 
candid examination of their claim to those names, convinced 
me, beyond all doubt, that they were fanatical, deluded spirits ; 
withall, not very intelligent, and by no means competent to 
teach in matters of Christian Theology ; and the mortals, how- 
ever candid they might be, (and of this I make no doubt in 
these and similar cases,) who relied upon these apocryphals for 
guidance were really led astray. But the subject is instruc- 
tive, let all " mediums" ponder upon it. 

A number of periodicals are now published devoted to 
this subject, and which contain more or less communications 
written by mortals and purporting to come from spirits. Here 
is a specimen : — 

" Eternal life is communicated from God the Life through 
God the Lord by God the Holy Procedure, who was In- 
carnate in Person in the Form terrestrial of Jesus Christ our 
Lord. Within his vehicles of spirit and of person dwelt that 
Infinite Being who alone is Life, Love, Essence, Form, and 
Harmony. He descended thus in infinite humiliation of person, 
that he might renew the soul of man froni life, the spirit from 
His love, the understanding from His essence, the person from 
llis form ; and pour through his whole nature, pardoned and 
regenerate, the eternal procedures of his harmony in beati- 
tudes without end ; and thus again quicken, consecrate, and 
glorify at last the discrowned and perishing family of man." 

And here is another. Can the reader tell what it means 1 

" In six lesser periods, numbered as days, the Lord Creator 
unfolded the aeriaf races of paradise, octave by octave, from the 
dove even to the seraph. Thus He caused the impersonal 
harmonies of paradise to be made perfect in their intermediate 
degree and in the wisdom of love. The seventh day of this 



SPIRITS. 288 

series was the Melodical Sabbath ; and the Lord ceased from 
His works of creative manifestation, and the earth had rest."* 

These extracts are made at random and might be continued 
to any length. But really, there is so much of this literature 
now afloat that it is difficult to make a selection from the mass. 
However, from a dozen books of the same class, I will name 
two or three which may be taken as types of the whole. The 
reader shall see, with what appropriateness such productions 
are called " Light,''''' and the reasons, also, why we should con- 
sider them very instructive. They show, professedly, the 
intelligence of those "' spirits" to whom we are called upon to 
look up for information, not merely in the important matters 
of Science, Theology, and Philosophy, but also, upon the 
momentous concerns of another world. Each of these produc- 
tions put forth similar claims ; all have one object in view, and 
while there may be numerous discrepancies detected in their 
various averments, yet there is, evidently, so much sameness 
in the style and the prominent characteristics of each, that no 
one would hesitate in pronouncing the same judgment upon 
them all, whatever that judgment might be. 

What, then, is the professed object aimed at in the publica- 
tion of these books 1 What are the claims they put forth, 
and upon what evidence are these claims based 7 Can their 
production be satisfactorily accounted for, without spiritual 
agency ? Or, admitting them to have had a spiritual origin, 
what is their character, merits, and use ? 

Sound reason and philosophy would seem to say, that if 
these productions can be satisfactorily accounted for, without 
resort to " departed spirits," we are bound to do so, for this 
very good reason ; some of us who do really believe in a spi- 
ritual world, and spiritual intercourse, are unwilling to admit 
that any " spirits" in the other world, can be so very ignorant 
as those must have been who controlled the composition of 
these books ! 

But I have shown (186 — 200) thai there is a way in which 
all these and similar productions can be satisfactorily account- 
ed for, even without implicating the integrity of any one of 
the mortals concerned in bringing them before the public. 
Those familiar with Psychology, which explains what is pe- 
culiar to persons who fall into a state of Trance, Somnam- 
bulism, or Visions, need not be told how common it is for cer- 
tain people to become so completely hallucinated with ^n idea, 
as to render themselves perfectly unconscious of every thing 
besides that idea, for the time being. In this manner, the 



* Mountain Cove Journal, 



284 BOOK OF HUMAN NATURE. 

young priest wrote his sermon with his eyes shut, spoken of 
by the Bishop of Bordeaux, tnany years ago. And we have 
had an account also of a young student in Prussia, who, in a 
state of unconsciousness, committed his lesson to memory, but 
of which he, himself, could give no explanation at all. I once 
heard a clergyman preach a sermon, in a state of which he 
was not afterwards conscious of having done any thing of the 
kind. Volumes might be filled with similar accounts of reli- 
gious fanatics, who, hallucinated by some (to them) greaitidea, 
of God, or Angels, they become infested with it, till they lose 
their self-control, when they dance, or pray, or preach, or 
sing, prophecy, or write books, as the case may be. When, 
therefore, respectable and honest people write books, and call 
them " voices of spirits,'^ or write romances and call them 
" Pilgrimages," and say they did not write them, but that spi- 
rits used their hands, and hence they were written by spirits, 
we find no difficulty at all in believing them, so far as their 
own honesty is concerned. The rationale of the phenomena 
is another question altogether. (186 — 194.) 

But, these " mediums" tell us, that although they them- 
selves are partially unconscious while these books are in the 
process of being written, yet they are written by "spirits!" 
But what does testimony from such an unconscious witness 
amount to"? Of what is this alleged unconsciousness af- 
firmed 1 Not, certainly, of the body, but the mind ! Well, 
then, if the mind be partially demented or disabled, it is, in 
,so far, rendered incompetent to testify, and hence it seems 
singularly unfortunate, for most of these spirit-books, that 
there is no evidence as to their mystical or spiritual origin ex- 
cept what depends upon the bare and unsupported testimony 
of partially-unconscious mediums ! Nor is this all — for if the 
mediums were entirely conscious, and wholly under their 
own self-control, their testimony could not be allowed in their 
own favor ! For although these books are ostensibly written 
of others who have departed this life, yet we are not called 
upon to receive them as the testimony of the mediums who 
write them, but as the testimony of the veritable spirits whose 
names are given in them. Here, then, is a manifest fallacy, 
and one too glaring to be overlooked in an investigation of 
this kind. A stranger approaches me with a letter purporting 
to have been written (through his hand) by George Washing- 
ton. I ask him, in what state George Washington was ena- 
bled thus to compose and write a letter by the use of his 
hand ? " O," says the medium, "you see I gave myself up 
entirely to the control of the spirit, and was not conscious of 
any volition or motion of my own, while my hand was moved 
to write that letter." But, if you was not in your normal 



SPIRITS. 285 

state, perfectly conscious and self-possessed, of course you 
are an incompetent witness ; you are not certain — have no re- 
liable knowledge of it ; you may have been deceived, not 
merely in respect to yourself, but the spirits also of whom 
^-uvu attempt to give an account. 

SPIRITUALISM OF THESE BOOKS CONCEDED. 

238. However, to save further cavil, I will admit that 
these books were written by " spirits," in the sense claimed 
for them. That is, the mediums were honest, truthful per- 
sons, and w&i^ moved, excited, controlled or inspired to write 
what is here published by a spirit, one or more, out of the hu- 
man body. And so, in any further remarks, I will consider 
myself as dealing entirely with "invisible spirits." If, how- 
ever, i should, in this inquiry, chance to find all these " ma- 
ny spirits" centered in one human being, Mr. P., or Mr. H., 
then my remarks, perhaps, may fall somewhat heavily, not 
upon them, but upon " spirits" who have possessed them, and 
who have not yet "departed" very far off. And, if those ex- 
ternal or human spirits, should prove to be somewhat sec- 
tarian, not very elevated in their style, ignorant and contra- 
dictory withal — why, then, I shall feel myself called upon to 
exonerate such spirits out of the body, as the real " George 
Washington," "Benjamin Franklin," "Thomas .Tefferson," 
and others, from the degradation in which the can^ the gram- 
matical blunders, the tautologies, truisms, and the twaddle 
of these volumes would otherwise ine.vitably involve them. 

And all this it will undoubtedly afford these unconscious 
writing mediums pleasure to have me do ; for, in this way, 
both parties mnst be exculpated from all blame. The medi- 
ums say they did not compose these books, which I freely ad- 
mit on their own testimony, as I have no doubt at all of their 
integrity. Well, 1 prove that they could not have been writ- 
ten by the spirits whose names are announced in them, and it 
must follow, that they were inspired by a certain grade of 
apocryphal spirits, and how high they stand in the scale of in- 
telligence who use such language as is here given, each one 
must judge for himself. 

What do the Spirits want ? 

239. But we shall be best able, probably, to determine 
as to what rank these spirits hold in the spheres of Intelli- 
gence, if we let them tell their own story as to w-hat they 
WANT — what has brought them back to earth again, what they 
propose to do, and by what means 1 And, to answer these 
queries, let us now listen to the " voicesj" let us look at the 



286 BOOK OF HUMAN NATURE. 

** light." and read the " instructions," all coming as they do, 
from the " spirit- world." I do not say spiritual world, be- 
cause these spirits do not say so. 

The spirits from the middle, or " spirit- world," therefore, 
are the nearest to mortals, or the nearest to the external 
world, and consequently that class who find it the most easy 
to get into mortals, and thus to gain possession of them, so as 
to make them (mortals) the vehicles through which they (spi- 
rits) can speak or write. Admitting this account of the other 
world to be true, then it would seem to follow that these spi- 
rits, one and all, had unwittingly announced themselves as 
" from the spirit world," not from the Heaven^i^f Angels — 
and have thus made it manifest what rank they hold in re- 
spect to Intelligence ! But let that pass. 

Spiritual Instructions. 

340. " Come in confidence to us."* p. 14. '' Our teachings 
should more deeply impress you." p. 28. "You need not 
doubt our teachings." lb. " Remember this, and fail not to 
OBEY." p. 32. ""Learn of us." p. 41. " Have confidence in 
what you receive from us." p. 26. " Seek to learn of spirits 
the eternal laws of God, as they are capable of teaching 
them." p. 64. Obey our directions, and you will be bene- 
fited." p. 66. "Seek to obtain knowledge of us." p. 70. 
" Desire all to seek our influence." p. 92. " Have faith in 
us." p. 115. "Fear not to obey us." p. 117. "Fear not 
to obey us." p. 119. "We desire you to obey the directions 
we have given you." p. 120. " Obey the directions we have 
given you, and all the human family will he benefited there- 
by.'''' p. 162. " We were assured that this preparatory disci- 
pline was necessary, in order that the spirit might obtain 
entire control over the medium.^'' p. 7. 

Indeed, the merits of all these spirit- written books consist 
in the fact, that the mediums are perfectly passive — wholly 
given up to spirits — their own judgments, for the time being, 
annihilated, their individual sovereignt}^ surrendered, and 
wholly given up to apocryphal spirits, which enter them, take 
/)Ossession of them, and control them ! ! Mr. H. speaks of 
the fact, and the books now under notice may be considered as 
types of a large number, which have been written and pub- 
lished by " spirits." Here is one called " Light from the Spi- 



* Spiritual Instructions, Eeceived at the Meetings of one of the 
Circle formed in Philadelphia, for the purpose of Investigating Spi- 
ritual Intorcoursd, 1850. ISmo. pp, 180, 



SPIRITS. 287 

rit World,"* and alleged to have been " written wholly by the 
control of spirits, without any volition or will [what is the 
difference between will and volition?] of the medium, or any 
thought or care in regard to the matter presented by his 
hand." This book bears the following characteristic marks 
of its origin, and, whether from a spirit out of the body or in, 
or one in the " first circle," or the sixth, his style I think may 
be considered as somewhat characteristic of his grade at least. 
And all this I may say, without meaning any thing disre- 
spectful or unkind of the " medium," who has been possessed 
in a manner to be compelled to utter what follows, which I 
am bound to suppose no mortal would or could have uttered, 
who was not possessed : — 

1.' — Tautologies : " Wisdom is what is wise^ and what is 
wise is wisdom. Wisdom is not folly, and folly is not wis- 
dom. Wisdom is not selfishness, and selfishness is not wis- 
dom. Wisdom is not evil, and evil is not wisdom." p. 31. 

" Such has been the curse of all changes — change, then, 
either supposes something favorable or unfavorable, &c. It 
desires a change. It sets in motion means equal to change 
our condition to another. When that condition is changed, it 
must be better or worse (!) than when in the former condi- 
tion. If better it is wise, if worse it is unwise. When 
changes therefore are wrought — when selfishness enters into 
the change., it would surprise itself if all men shared in the 
benefits of the cAan^e," p. 76. See also the repetition of 
" wonder," p. 97, 134, where this word is harped upon till its 
use becomes repulsive to good taste. And thus in the un- 
grammatical use of the word " they," page 200, and " we 
see," " we see," " we see," page 218, 256. 

" The scorn is a work of scorn. They who scorn to visit — 
scorn the work required. They affect to scorn those who do 
it, because they wish to excuse themselves by scorn. They 
would not scorn what is good to others — it is not therefore the 
work they scorn in reality ; they affect to scorn, so that, what 
wisdom demands of all, may be content with scorn. It is a 
dignity that scorns right, that scorns duty of right, scorns 
Jesus, scorns religion, and scorns heaven." p. 145. 

2. — Senseless Phrases : — " Witches are witches under 
whatever guise they wear, p. 27. He is the apex of earth's 
inhabitants, p. 47. Wisdom was an intuitive element of their 
existence, p. 48. We have seen wisdom descend on clouds 

* Light from the Spirit World, Comprising a Series of Articles 
written wholly by the Goutrol of Spirits. C. Hammoud, Medium. 
1852. 18mo. pp. 263. 



288 bo6k of human nature. 

of glory, but vainly was her mission, p. 62. Wonders have 
been performed on the ground you now rest, p. 77. What is, 
is not often is, p. 82. Extenuated such amendments, p. 84. 
They cannot will what is contrary to their will," p. 96. 

3. — Puerile attempts at Emphasis: — "Volition or will. 
(Title page.) When crumbling earths and wider seas shall 
sink to rise no more, p. 74. [Where will they sink to 1] 
We will say what shall shortly be done. We shall make bare 
men's hearts. We have resolved to rebuke sharply. We 
have under our inspection, more than one, whose inducements 
have been such with mediums that we shall not write without 
writing the truth, p. 107. We see money diggers. Money 
diggers are misers, p. 117. The sacrifice lies in his gory 
bed, and the moaning night-breeze sighs over his grave, p. 125. 
And worse than all, worse than ever, mind is not satisfied." p. 
131. 

4. — Solecisms — Truisms : — " Deceiving spirits are those 
who deceive, p. 19. What is wrong is not right, p. 28. 
Nothing will control but power, p. 30. Some things are right, 
others are wrong, p. 31. Change is alteration, p. 32. What 
is wise is a work of wisdom, p. 32. Men are what they are, 
p. 35. Wisdom wills good ; folly wills otherwise [!] one is 
right, the other is wrong, p. 35. Men are wise in what they 
know, and unwise in what they do not know, p. 36. Works 
Hre the doings of a worker, p. 44. When a work is eternal it 
is durable, p. 44. Works of men are men's work, p. 53. 
Works are what they are, p. 61. Minds will show wisdom or 
folly, p. 74. When change comes over mind or matter, the 
thing changed is diflTerent, it is not what it was before, p. 75. 
Change is alteration. Nothing changed is the same, p. 78. 
vVhatever is antagonistical is at war, p. 141. If it be not 
right, it is wrong, p. 163. There is no circle lower than the 
lowest, p. 165. The good is well, but the evil is not well, p. 
167. For this wrong, others wronged him. They were both 
wrong. Two wrongs met. Two wrongs disagree.d. Two 
prongs, wronged each other. They were both wrong, and 
they both suffered for their wrongs. They suflfered as their 
wrongs made them suflTer, p. 215. A wrong mind, or mind in 
wrong, is not right, p. 225. Mediums of writing with the aid 
of spirits are wise and unwise. An advanced mind will not 
be controlled by spirits inferior to itself, p. 242. 

5. — Errors and Contradictions : — 1. " That no one can with- 
hold his convictions of a truth, established by miracles, p. 9. 
The spirits work miracles, p. 203. And yet all do not be- 
lieve ; nor indeed does Mr. H» himselft yield up all his own 



SPIRITS. 289 

convictions, though he is " confounded'' by what the spirits 
have done, p. 7. 

2. — That man can surrender his own judgment, his own 
reason, and safely act upon the will or judgment of another, in 
matters pertaining to religion and his final destiny, p. 7, 250. 
Throughout this book, the medium is represented as being per- 
fectly passive, having no will of his own, and under the com- 
plete control of apochryphal spirits. 

3. — That spirits measure time by days and " years.'' " We 
offer from an experience of over fifty years in that sphere," 
p. 21. 

4. — That there is no " deception" from spirits who have 
departed this life, p. 19. This very affirmation is a contradic- 
tion of the sentiment which it was designed to convey. 

5. — That the spirits who uttered the truism above quoted, 
are ** the fathers, the mothers, who (thus) speak from expe- 
rience the wisdom of a superior sphere," p. 33. The wisdom 
displayed in these writings show the source whence it origi- 
nated to be inferior and far below, what is common to mor- 
tals. Such unmeaning " words" are called " light from the 
spirit world !" 

5. — That " spirits out of the body," cannot be deceived by 
mortals, p. 157. ' Spirits out of the body,' have often con- 
fessed to me, that they had been deceived by mortals, and 
that they could be again. 

6. — That " the simple movement of the hand, without the 
medium's own volition is proof of a good spirit," p. 226. A 
statement like this is proof of a very ignorant spirit, if he be 
not an " evil one." 

6. — Cant phrases and grammatical blunders : — " It writes 
preachers or publishers, p. 84, 128, 131. We will say, p. 120. 
Party is the watchword. Hold ! p. 123. What is nature ? 
Hold ! p. 133. We will with what is done. Hold ! p. 144. 
We ask where I p. 124. We will not say, p. 127. We 
answer, p. 129. We see, p. 129. They who will scarcely 
find a place in the second circle, p. 138. We ask what is it I 
p. 139. In fact, p. 165. Such is one among many incon- 
sistencies we might name," p. 201. 

7. — Fulsome self-laudation : — " What spirits say and write 
is not human wisdom, p. 90. Circles will find that they are 
wise when they come to a knowledge of the truth ; but we see 
not how they can advance one step in the way of its attain- 
ment, unless they will obey the directions and follow the 
INSTRUCTIONS of spiHts, p. 91. Circlcs will never advance 
until they make up their minds to receive the instructions of 
-spirits, p. 92. We see who has done ^11 this. We see who 
13 



290 BOOK OF HUMAN NATUKE. 

occupy the first circle in the body, p. 106. We will say what 
will shortly be done. We shall make bare men's hearts. We 
have resolved to rebuke sharply. We have under our inspec- 
tion more than one, whose inducements have been such, &c. 
We see what will make some men tremble when revealed. 
We will write as we intend. We are spirits, p. 107. We see 
some who write what they will, and then we let them write, 
p. 112. We take what are called the weak things of the first 
sphere, to confound what are called the mighty among men, p. 
114. [Does this refer to all mediums whom the spirits cause 
to write 1] We see the sluggard. He saw not. He reaps 
not, unless what other hands have sown. If be reap, he works, 
be is not idle [I] p. 115. We write. We work, p. 116. We 
see it. We see the naked truth, p. 130. Who then shall 
write, preach, and publish, what will overcome minds and re- 
concile them with each other 1 We can see who will do it, 
p. 133. We assume to do good. We assume that no good 
can be expected from a corrupt fountain (mortals). We 
assume to correct the fountain. We assume more. We will 
expose the unhealthy element when in a corrupt state. Have 
spirits no wisdom ? Are our minds subject to the control of 
selfishness? p. 148. We will go ; yea, we will show by our 
works the nakedness of that profession which seeks to deal 
damnation by withholding the need which wretchedness de- 
mands, p. 151. We will say what should be done. We will 
write what should be done. Not only preachers, but lawyers, 
doctors, schools, colleges, and books are wrong. They are 
wrong in many things essential to the progress of mind. 
They would laugh down spirits. We see what we have 
written. We see more. When disease shall be controlled 
by spirits, mind will not be dependent on human skill for its 
remedy, p. 152-54. We see who writes, who preaches, and 
who publishes that which is known to be untrue. We see 
what will cure the evil. We will change that writes wrong 
into right, p. 163. Human destiny is now measurably in our 
hands, under God, p. 173. We are witnesses of the sixth 
circle of the second sphere, p. 174. We have not written this 
book in the wisdom of the sixth circle, but in the wisdom of 
the fourth, p. 170. We write what is next above the mind 
whom we wish to instruct, and hence the circle which the 
receiver (medium) occupies, is always indicated by the com- 
munication," p. 177. [A statement, this, certainly, not very 
flattering to the medium, who wrote this book.] 

The second book* is called like the first, " Light from the 

^ Light from the Spirit World. The Pilgrimage of Thomas Paine 
and others to the Seventh Circle in the Spirit World. Hev. 0. Ham- 
mood medvum. 1852. 18mo. pp. 264. 



SPIRITS. 291 

Spirit World," and purports to be " The Pilgrimage of Thomas 
Paine to the Seventh Circle in the Spirit World," and written 
by the veritable spirit of the said Thomas Paine. But, for- 
tunately or unfortunately, as the reader would have it, this 
book also, bears on its pages certain peculiar characteristics, 
which it would be unpardonable in any reader to overlook. 
They w^ere placed there, I doubt not, by Superior Wisdom, 
and to serve a good purpose, one of which the medium himself 
may have been as unconscious of, as he was of any design on 
his part to write a book like the one now under notice. The 
book itself may be called a Romance, and for evidence of which 
see pages 20, 21, 25, 34, 36. Its peculiar traits may be in- 
cluded under the head of solecisms, obscurities, cant phrases, bad 
grammar, absurdities, &c. All leading to identify it with' the 
one from which the preceding quotations have been made ; and 
showing if Mr. H. did not write it himself, there can be no 
doubt it was inspired by the same spirit which possessed him 
when he wrote the other. Thus we have 

1. Solecistns : — "What the mind wants — the hope of the 
soul in a future sphere, p. 28. When a work is required, 
workmen are necessary, p. 80. For war never rages where 
peace reigns, p. 107. That which is true, is a truth, and that 
which is false, is not true, p. 127. When a work is under- 
stood, it will not need an interpretation, p. 130. Ignorance is 
the absence of knowledge, p. 153. The Saviour is he who 
saves, p. 156. AH is wrong which is not good, 159. To be 
well, is not ill, p. 169. Mutual attractions never repulse each 
other, p. 197. Wrong is not right, p. 200. The stars shine, 
p. 210. Never will wisdom of the will be attracted by the 
folly of the universe, p. 215. When a mind cannot be cruel, 
cruelty cannot be done by it, 241. I have seen cruel doctrines 
produce cruelty," p. 244. 

2. Obscurities : — " A cloud of wisdom, p. 46. Rain and 
sunshine, [in the spirit world,] p. 134. When a minp will not 
acknowledge the truth, p. 171. When no unwise conduct on 
your part exists, p. 175. The whole would induce sight to be 
dazzled, p. 180. Within the theatre of a circle, p. 189. The 
mildew of neglect hath no surface on your minds, p. 193. It 
makes hope a wisdom of fact, p. 213. Attractive forces may 
be estimated by the distance between them and the weight of 
those forces." p. 214. ■ 

3. Absurdities : — " It was a day of fasting and prayer, p. 
144. Waste places in a world of eternal reality, p. 188 
Predictions uttered after the events come to pass, p. 203, 229. 
The use of the talisman, in Heaven, p. 188. Baptism in the 
spiritual world, p. 49. Spirits measure time by days, nights, 



292 BOOK OF HUMAN NATURE. 

and years, p. 39, 133. " Tom Paine, reading the Bible," in 
Heaven " on his knees V p. 49. Miz^ynry, and Masonic Cere- 
momejr, pass- words, &c., in Heaven, p. 34, 40, 44, 47, 124, 188, 
189. 

(4.) Contradictions: — In what is said about "nature," p. 
29. In what is said about happiness, p. 117. Is not the law 
of gravitation right ? And yet, this law makes those unhappy 
who violate it. That a " falsehood," is not a "/ac^,"p. 151. 
That ignorance is the cause of all fear, p. 178, and yet, " what 
is unknown ought not to create fear," p. 179. That perfect 
equality reigns in a certain circle, where no mind is ruler, and 
no mind is ruled, p. 191, and yet, superior wisdom does rule 
" all conditions of mind," p. 199. That positive and negative 
bodies, repel each other, p. 214, which is not true. 

(5.) Cant phrases and had grammar : — " Port holes in Hea- 
ven, p. 64, 127. The day of judgment, p. 68, 69. When God 
comes to make up his jewels, p. 69. I have been regenerated 
by the atonement of Christ, p. 73. The devil, p. 77. Mind 
is a free agent, p. 78. Saved by repentance, p. 100. Broken 
spears, and guns without locks, (in heaven,) p. 104. Throne 
of mercy, p. 104. Sling and pebbles, p. 109. The works 
which Christ done, p. 120. Friends, thou wilt, p. 142. Gov- 
ernments have arisen and fell^'' p. 242. Upon a candid 
examination of these books I must consider, (to use Mr. H.'s 
own language.) that the medium was beheaded who wrote it, 
as he says, " When one head controls another, the one con- 
trolled has been beheaded,^'' p. 76. 

Curiosities ofl^Spirit^ Literature. 

241. Let us now examine another of these characteristic 
books. Here is one that purports to have been written, not 
by one, but " many spirits," some sixty-two or more, who 
have departed out of the external world.* And yet, we shall 
find upon due examination, that most of these so called "de- 
parted spirits," all speak a language which is characteristic of 
one spirit, which dwells in and possesses the good Mr. P. him- 
self. So that we are forced to the conclusion, that if he has 
uttered any other language besides his own, it is of that one 
other spirit by whom he is obsessed, but of whose real identity 
Mr. P. in reality knows just nothing at all ! 

Some peculiarities in Mr. P.'s own style may be seen in 
his address " to the reader," signed with his own proper name, 

* "Voices from the Spirit World, being Communications from ma- 
ny Spirits, by the hand of Isaac Post, Medium." 1852» 18mo, pp, i5Q>^ 



SPIRITS. 293 

page 3d and 4th. Here we find such terms as the following : 
" IfeeV — " It seems to me'''' — " Those who have not the ;?rt- 
vilege, as I have." And it is curious enough to see how fre- 
quently these and a few other cant phrases are repeated by- 
each of the spirits whose signatures he has so confidingly pre- 
fixed, and affixed to his different communications : 

(1.) Sameness in the language : — "Mine is the privilege. ^^ 
p. 19. A. C. Cary. 

" I thank thee for this privilege.'''' p. 27. Elias Hicks. 

" Hoping at some future time to have the privilege. '^'^ p. 
30. lb. 

" It is quite unexpected to me to be thus favored" (privi- 
leged) p. 31. George Washington. 

It is worthy of notice, perhaps, that General Washington 
did not in his later years sign his given name in full, as he is 
now made to do when speaking through Mr. P. 

"I had often the ;9ni;t7e^e of conversing with spirits." p. 41, 
— Emanuel Swedenhorg. 

" It is the first time it has been my privilege.'''' p. 69. Ed^ 
ward Hicks. 

" Gratitude to God for the privilege.'''' p. 69. lb. 

" I am grateful for this privilege.^'' p. 79. George Fox. 

"If I had been given the privilege.'''' p. 226. William 
Penn. 

" I thank thee for this privilege.^'' p. 237. J. M. 

That so many different spirits, having lived in this world at 
remote periods of time, and all using different styles while in 
the body, should now so readily fall into the use of the same 
cant phraseology, is indeed "most wonderful." Thus far in 
respect to "privileges." Let us now see how they all '^ee/." 
We have already noticed that the medium, when speaking in 
his own proper person, and of himself, finds a ready use 
for the little word "yeeZ," [perhaps he was once a sectarian,] 
and hence we need not be surprised, therefore, to find that all 
the spirits who purport to speak through him, " feel" it very 
convenient to use the peculiar language of Mr. P. himself, 
though we may not perceive any thing like this language in 
the writings which either of these persons have left behind 
them in this world. Now listen : 

" I feel I shall be." p. 12. Benjamin Franklin. 
" I /ee/ to encourage." p. 20. A. C. Cary. 
"I feel to give." lb. A. C. Cary. 

"I/eeZtosay a word about John C. Calhoun." p. 37. 
George Washington. 



294 BOOK OF HUMAN NATURE. 

Reader, how does this language, in the mouth of a spirit, 
sound to you ? Do you reply, you never have heard a disem- 
bodied spirit talk ? Well, perhaps not; but you have heard 
them through a " medium," and you are called on to believe 
that it is all the same as if George Washington stood before' 
you, and you heard him utter these very words ! It sounds 
strange, " to be sure ;" strange, indeed. But let us proceed ; 
and if the reader should " feel" sorry to find himself surround- 
ed with a grade of spirits vi^ho can use such language, why, 
he must remember these spirits did not come at my call — and 
that these quotations are mere " drops from the ocean ;" there 
are many more where these are taken from, — and we wish to 
ascertain what place that was : — 

" We/eeZto encourage them." p. 66. L. E. L. 

" Ifeel to express my knowledge." p. 75. Edward Hicks. 

" I feel better. Ifcel to thank God. While I write Ifeel 
to bless God. In this feeling I bid you good-bye." p. 86. 
— William Weeks. 

"I begin io feel you." p. 90. John C. Calhoun. 

" J feel to bless him." p. 93. Elias Hicks. 

"He wiW feel encouraged." p. 100. Thomas Jefferson. 

"I/eeZ interested." p. 126. Edward Steplar. 

"I do not feel to condemn others." p. 134. Sarah Sharp, 

"I/eeZ to encourage all." p. 140. Thomas Clarkson. 

" If we/eeZ that we have his approbation." lb. Thomas 
Clarkson. 

And thus it is quite manifest that all of Mr. P.'s spirits 
feel very much alike, and that happens to be very much like 
himself. Hear them : — 

" His love I/eeZ." p. 145. Samuel Fothergill. 

'■'■ Ifeel grateful. I feel that the supposed resistance from 
earth to heaven is nearly annihilated." p. 147. Benjamin 
Franklin. 

" I feel constrained to give of the knowledge I am pos- 
sessed of." p. 152. Elias Hicks. 

" I felt as though I had been." p. 158. Nicholas Woln. 

" I feel to pity them." p. 167. -S. T. 

" I feel that I should have been." p. 175. N. P. Rogers. 

" I feel elevated." p. 184. Richard Henry Lee. 

" I feel now, to encourage every one." p. 185. Stephen 
Hopkins. 

" I feel a degree of awe." p. 186. Robert Treat Paine. 

" I feel to give you some short account of my spiritual 
life." p. 192. D. Krittenhouse. 

" On this, to me, most interesting occasion, I feel to give a 
view of the clergy." p. 200. Henry Colden. 



SPIRITS. 295 

These quotations are made under a conviction that this sub- 
ject requires a more thorough sifting than has ever yet been 
given it. These are the spirits they purport to be, or it is all 
done by possession. And which is the truth, it amply con- 
cerns us all to know. If such senseless twaddle can be put 
into the mouths of Washington and Franklin without offence, 
it were well to pause and ask ourselves what kind of a world 
those worthies have gone to, or why they did not stay there, 
before bringing back to this world language like the following : 

" I was introduced into a state far better than I deserved, 
(where was Justice?) for which \feel thankful, and that feel- 
ing of gratitude, I feel advances me." p. 206. Fenemore 
Cooper. 

If this be the spirit of Cooper the Novelist, it seems he has 
adopted a new method of spelling his name. 

" Ifecl my un worthiness." p. 226. Wm. Pean, 

And here is another term repeated times enough to make it 
sufficiently manifest, that each of the different communica- 
tions in which it occurs, originated from one and tiie same 
spirit : — 

" Let love, unselfish, be cultivated." p. 144. Samuel Fo- 
thergill. 

" When you perform an unselfish duty." p. 149. Benjamin 
Franklin. 

"Ours is the unselfish task." p. 161. Nicholas Wain. 

"An unselfish desire." p. 168. »S. T. 

" Those unselfish truths." p. 171. Daniel G'ConnelL 

" The unselfish works of kindness." p. 177. N. P. Ro- 
gers. 

" Unselfish love." p. 181. William Penn, 

" Who works for his brother unselfishly.'^'' p. 188. P. 
Clanborne. 

" Unselfishly to do good." p. 205. Benj. Gray. 

"Love unselfishly manifested." p. 226. Wm. Penn. 

"An unselfish counsellor." p. 9. B. Franklin. 

" His unselfish nature." p. 72. Edward Hicks. 

" Such unselfish conduct." p. 85.' William Weeks. 

'^ Lo\e unselfish.'''' p. 88. John C. Calhoun. 

" An unselfish love." p. 96. Thomas Jeffersoji. 

" Kindness unselfishly performed." p. 113. George Fox. 

" To do man good unselfishly.'' p. 136. Thomas Clarkson. 

" Unselfishly devoted." p. 239. Thomas Witherald. 

And here is another, which " it seems" very singular, to 
hear from the mouths of so many different spirits. In reading 



296 BOOK OF HUMAN NATUEE. 

these quotations we are led to ask ourselves what kind of a 
world that must be whence rays of " light" such as these 
come 1 How could Franklin, and Wa,9hington, and O'Connell 
talk in this style 1 And observe, no matter whether the spirit 
were Irish or French, or English, it is all the same, each one 
falls into the use of precisely the same word. Does not this 
look like possession 1 And if not, what is it? 

" It seems to me." p. 11. Benjamin Franklin. 
•' It seems to me." p. 141. Thomas Clarkson. 
" It seems to me." p. 152. Elias Hicks. 
" It seems to me." p. 157. N. Wain. 
" That seems to me." p. 164. Lydia Smith. 
" Things that seem of the greatest importance." p. 168. S. T. 
" It seems to me." p. 171. Daniel O'Connell. 
" It seems almost like being again in Congress" [!] p. 185. 
Thomas Jefferson. 
" It seems to me, I see." p, 188. Phil. Livingston. 
" It seems to me." p. 212. M. Fuller. 
" It seems to me." 225. Wm. Penn. 
" It seemed far better." p. 250. Voltaire. 
" It would seem like a repition." p. 253. lb. 

And, "to be sure," here is another cant phrase, which 
" seems" peculiar to the writings of " a spirit" in good Mr. 
P. :— 

" To be 5wre." p. 9. Benjamin Franklin. 

•' To be sure.'''' p. 30. Elias Hicks. 

" To be sure.'''' p. 98. Thomas Jefferson. 

"To be sure.'' p. 117. John C. Calhoun. 

" To be 5wre." p. 125. Mrs Franklin. 

" To be sure.''' p. 163. Lydia Smith. 

"To be sure.'" p. 170. Daniel O'Connell. 

" To be sure." p. 203. Paul Jones. 

" To be sure.''' p. 216. L. E. L. 

" To be sure." p. 220. Wm. Penn. 

" To be sure." p. 239. Colton Mathew. 1 

If the last name was meant for Cotton Mather, " it seems," 
" to be sure," that he is not the only spirit who has forgotten 
how to spell his own name.' 

No person familiar with the cant phrases, so common among 
sectarians, can fail to perceive that the writer of " Voices from 
the Spirit World," was either himself educated a sectarian, 
(probably a Quaker,) or that he was obsessed by a " spirit" 
very familiar with sectarian phrases : — 

"A testimony to right." p. 150. Benjamin Franklin. 
" I feel to give my testimony," p. 194. G. Whitfield. 



SPIRITS. 297 

" You have my testimony ^ p. 198. James Madison. 

" It seems best to add my testimony.'''* p. 253. Voltaire. 

"I, too, will give a sentiment.''' p. 178. Geo. Washington. 

" I see I am taking up too much time, [I] and, therefore, will 
cease at once." p. 189. G. Walton. 

" For this you have my earnest prayers," p. 190. J. 8. 
Jackson. 

" I desire to turn thy attention to the subject." p. 142. <S. 
Fothergill. 

" Let me turn your attention to one." p. 148. Benjamin 
Franklin, 

" Let me turn thy attention to another subject." p. 154. 

"My attention is very much turned to Ireland." p. 171. 
Daniel 0''Connell. 

" Let me turn your attention to the subject." p. 177. N. 
P. Rogers. 

" I will turn thy attention.''^ p. 225. Wm. Penn. 

" I will turn thy attention.'' p. 235. /. M. 

And, thus of numerous other terms. Indeed, from page 179 
to 209, containing what is called " Sentiments from many 
Spirits," in which it is represented that some sixty different 
ones all joined to " express a sentiment," precisely in the style 
of a " Quaker Meeting," " Methodist Love Feast," or " Baptist 
Conference," and in which there occurs some things flat and 
silly enough to come from mortals, but when such words are 
put into the mouth of Franklin, Washington, Jefferson, J. Q. 
Adams, Cooper, Bonaparte, and others, the scene borders upon 
the ludicrous : — 

" It is with a thankful heart that I approach you, to give a 
word.'''' p. 183. J. Q. Adams. 

" I feel elevated. Blessed be God, for allowing me this 
privilege." p. 184. Richard Henry Lee. 

" Contious [what ?] of every thing that is of moment." p. 
193. Benjamin West. 

" I am contious., that all conditions is exactly what the 
earthly fitted them for." p. 194. /. W. Rawson. 

•' But I am progressing, thank God." p. 197. Andrew 
Jackson. 

" In humility I approach to pen a few sentiments." p. 197. 
Jas. Madison. 

" I expect to arrive from my present degradation ; but I am 
taking up too much time and space." p. 201. James K. 
Polk. 

" I would like to enlarge, but time and space fail me ; but I 
desire to say, I am gradually rising from my degradation." p. 
203. Wm. H. Harrison. 



298 BOOK OF HUMAN NATURE. 

" I was introduced into a state, far better than I deserved, 
for which I feel thankful ; and that feeling of gratitude, as it 
is cultivated, I feel advances me. I would say more, but I 
find I am taking too much of your precious time." p. 206. 
Fenemore Cooper [?] 

As to the '' Spirit" whence language like the above must 
have originated I leave the reader to judge. My own opinion 
is, that it was concocted, (unconsciously it may be) by one 
spirit in the brains of the medium, who has, probably, been 
obsessed, as, I fear many others have been and are now, and 
who are thus as really deceived in respect to the identity of 
the spirit who purports to speak through them, as if the me- 
dium imagined himself the Voltaire, or Thomas Paine, for 
whom he imagines he may be writing. These facts, cer- 
tainly present a most important question to be decided in some 
way, not merely by those who are thus possessed, but also, by 
all who are, or may be engaged in the investigation of " mani- 
festations" which purport to come from the spiritual world. If 
such specimens of intelligence as those here quoted, come 
from spirits in the "sixth circle," what, pray, might we hear 
from some in the lowest circle ^ These " spirits" gravely 
announce to us, that there is " none lower than the lowest,'''* 
and if there was ever a jumble of more silly twaddle concocted 
into the form of a " sermon," " exhortation," " testimony," 
" pilgrimage," or " book," by any visionary fanatic of preceding 
ages, I can only say, that nothing of the kind has yet fallen 
under my notice. 

I have quoted thus freely from these productions for the pur- 
pose of showing their general character. These are not rare 
specimens, but samples of what may be found on every page ; 
and to quote any considerable part of them would be to re- 
peat nearly the whole of these books. The question is now 
before the reader, and he must render such a verdict as the 
facts in the case may seem to demand. Omitting, as I have, 
to notice the multitudes of solecisms, absurdities, improbabil- 
ities, rant, cant phrases, and contradictions which abound in 
each of these books, I have exhibited enough of them to show 
the grounds upon which my own convictions are based. As I 
admit these " manifestations" to be not, indeed, from the hea- 
vens of angels, but, as they purport to come, from the " spirit- 
world," so I am bound to believe, what the spirits themselves 
affirm, when they say, their object is to gam entire control 
over the souls and bodies of men. 

A few queries of a specific bearing, are suggested by this 
subject : — » 

1. Is not individual sovereignty the true doctrine of man- 
hood'? 



spiKiTS. 299 

2. Can a human being, conscious of his true manhood, yield 
up his own ivill^ his own soul and body, to be possessed and 
controlled by apocryphal spirits 1 

3. When the predominating desire on the paf t of mortals or 
spirits, is to gain possession of that which constitutes the sove- 
reignty of another, is this disposition to be considered as indi- 
cative of low or high degrees of intelligence ? 

4. Is it not remarkable that the account which the spirits 
(when taken as a whole) have given of themselves, in these 
modern spiritual manifestations by " writing" and " speaking 
mediums," should so exactly agree with the description which 
Emanuel Swedenborg gave of " the world of spirits," more 
than one hundred years ago, {Sp. D. 1748,) when he said : — 
*' That neaj-ly the whole world of spirits is fanatical, and 
seeks nothing else hut to teach and to lead — striving even to 
POSSESS the bodies of men, and to loosen all the bonds of con- 
science, especially in respect to marriage." 

Such, reader, are a few specimens of the intelligence mani- 
fested by those spirits who strive to gain possession of the 
souls and bodies of mortals.- What is your verdict 1 

Te§t§ of €xradeo 

242. What, then, appears to be the chief characteristics of 
all manifestations from spirits, made by sounds, and through 
mediums to man's external senses *? In other words, what is 
the grade of spirits who obsess and possess mortals 1 Admit 
of course, all that is believed as to the beautiful messages 
from departed friends, already referred to. (210.) All that is 
uttered by mortals as coming from spirits, but which we can- 
not authenticate as purely spiritual at all. Admit all the love, 
all the good, all the benefits claimed by the most enthusiastic 
receiver of these things, and what then? Still, we must 
account as best we may, for a multitude of characteristics in 
these things, and in view of which they must finally be judgei. 

1. One principal feature of these manifestations which ar- 
rests our attention is the Angular Form, the indirect manner 
in which they are made. Mortals converse, and interchange 
thouglits face to face, directly, in the use of language fam.iliar 
to both parties. But in these manifestations it is not so. At; 
first, mysterious sounds are made, which no mortal knew the 
meaning of; and, to the present time, conversations are car- 
ried on with invisible spirits only by this zig-zag or angular 
method ; which is not only attended with many difficulties, 
but may be considered as corresponding with the grade of spi- 
rits, or source whence these things originate as the proxi- 
mate cause. 



800 BOOK OF HUMAN NATUKE. 

2. The next noticeable feature is, their direct appeals to the 
organs of credulity and marvelousness. We must believe they 
come from spirits ; we must believe they are the identical per- 
sonalities which they affirm themselves to be. It is not enough 
to believe they are spirits who have passed from this world, 
but we must believe they are our nearest, dearest relatives 
and friends. Nor these alone, but others — warriors, states- 
men, religious chieftains, poets, orators, &c., with whom, 
neither the medium nor any mortal now living had any ac- 
quaintance while those spirits were in this world. And O, the 
magical powers of faith ! Believing you are indeed holding 
converse with the spirit of some great personage, or one of 
you dearly loved, makes a " rap," a word, or trivial sen- 
tence, important, and beautiful indeed ! 

3. We next observe the utter want of authentication in 
these manifestations, from first to last. " Communications," 
spoken or written by human beings, must lack authentication 
in all cases where there is nothing except what is said or done 
by the medium. In these cases, it is impossible to prove that 
the communications are made by spirits at all. ^, 

And, when things are done independently of all motions in 
the mind or body of the external medium, there is no proof of 
IDENTITY. The ipse dixit of an apocryphal spirit is not suffi- 
cient proof. Nor is the clairvoyance of an invisible spirit suf- 
ficient evidence. Indeed it may be admitted as extremely 
doubtful, whether spiritual, personal identity can be demon- 
strated through such an imperfect method of communication. 
Mortals, when hallucinated, or possessed, may believe any 
thing, and hence it is we find them often relying with implicit 
confidence on a number of '* raps," or the mere affirmation of 
spirits, as indisputable evidence of identity ! I do not say that 
mediums and others do not often become perfectly satisfied so 
as to have no doubts as to the identity of those they call their 
" guardian spirits," and yet, in many such cases I have known 
them to become as well satisfied that they had been deceived, 
as others may be again. 

4. That, thus far, in all these manifestations, how is it to 
be accounted for, that so very little, if any intelligence above 
the knowledge of mortals, has been evinced by spirits ; and, 
that all the spirits know of mortals should fall even below 
cases of common clairvoyance 1 

5. That some mediums for the sounds, and for all the vari- 
ety of the manifestations, should themselves doubt, and even 
deny that it is done by spirits at all ! They confess they do 
not know how the sounds are made, but one believes they are 
made by electricity — and another thinks they may be caused 
by ^^ something," he does not know what, but it is not spirits. 



SPIRITS. 801 

Nor is this all. Some from what purport to be the spirits of 
cats, dogs, horses and birds ! And these animals converse 
and spell words, the same as mortals do. How is this ? And 
why ? And how are we to account for the fact, that mediums 
for the real spiritual manifestations have in some cases de- 
ceived and falsified in respect to what was done through them ? 

6. That it should be so very seldom that you can get the 
same responses through different media. Spirits purporting 
to be the same will deny or contradict responses made through 
other mediums who purported to be the same. This is often 
done. Nay, more, mediums themselves have often failed to 
get the same responses, when they sought them through other 
mediums ! Does not this prove that the answers in such cases 
are confined to the associate spirit which possesses the exter- 
nal medium? Have a sitting with two mediums who differ in 
their views. Call on your guardian spirit in respect to those 
points of difference, through one medium. Then, when you 
have got the answer, request that medium to leave the room, 
while you get answers through the other. In such cases, if 
the first medium have no knowledge as to the difference of 
opinion, you will find that the answers, though given in the 
same circle, will not be the same. 

7. Again, we are called upon to show how it is that at- 
tempts or promises of spirits to communicate intelligence, are 
so often failures, or when communications are made by alpha- 
bet, they do not amount to much, are sometimes frivolous, 
low, unsatisfactory ; and in many cases they are false, fanati- 
cal, and sectarian. 

In a majority of cases the spirits evince an unwillingness to 
be tested ; or if they seem to be willing, they evince an utter 
inability to demonstrate their personal identity. And, in all 
cases where the mortal who puts the question is either a 
stranger, or not very congenial with the external medium, if 
answers to test questions be attempted, it is with manifest re- 
luctance* The spirit seems to make an effort to feel the an- 
swer out of the mind of the mortal. Hence, instead of giving 
the name, age, time and place promptly, they call for a num- 
ber of names to be written down, out of which the spirit may 
make a selection ! And then, when the selection is attempt- 
ed, the raps are made to a number of names, and to a number 
of dates, and the mortal takes his choice as to which is the 
right one. If this be not possession, what is it ? It has all 
the characteristics of being done by spiritual clairvoyance, as 
far as any knowledge is evinced by the spirits of mortals at 
all ! 

8 Occasionally, when mortals are clairvoyant, they have 
been known to give independent descriptions, not of living 



802 BOOK OF HUMAN NATUKE. 

characters, merely, but of those who were in the spiritual 
world. But, it is a remarkable fact, that among all the 
" speaking" and " writing mediums" who have flooded the 
country with "Books," "Light," "Lectures," &c., &c., all 
purporting to come from " spirits" who were distinguished 
persons in this world, not one of these mediums has ever 
given any reliable evidence as to the personal identity of the 
" M. D.'s," " Rev.'s," " Presidents," " Prophets," and 
" Members of Congress," who have ostensibly spoken, or 
written through them. Imitations are not proofs of personal 
identity, especially if we are to believe what Swedenborg has 
said of "subjective spirits."* And thus far, the method of 
these modern manifestations goes very much towards con- 
firming the truth of what Swedenborg has taught, in respect to 
" the world of spirits." 

9. How, also, has it come to pass, that the spirits have 
uttered so many contradictions, so many falsehoods, and in so 
many cases have evinced a love of mischief, if not downright 
malignity ? They have sent mediums and others, to dig 
money where no money was to be found ; and to find the dead 
bodies of persons, who were living ; they have sent others 
long journeys, to find out, when they arrived at the places 
directed, that they had leaned upon a broken reed. 

That they may have given directions that have resulted in 
finding and curing sick people, may be true, as this could be 
easily done if the spirit who possesses the medium, were clair- 
voyant ; and things of this kind, of course, would be done, in 
order to excite the confidence of the medium and maintain 
complete control over him. And this may be, and probably has 
been one reason, for the use of distinguished names by spirits, 
such as " Washington," " Franklin," " Jefferson," and. others. 
Any mortal, really believing that he had the identical spirit of 
Washington or Franklin in him, or by his side, might, indeed, 
feel a little flattered. a 

10. In nearly all cases they will lie, if they are approached 
by mortals who lie to them, thus rendering evil for evil, instead 
of good for evil. How is this 1 How often have candid and 
truthful mortals attended sittings for responses from spirits, 
when every word, " rapped," or " written out," by the invisi- 
bles, Vv^as false ! And when the medium is informed of the 
falsehood, the reply has been, that the visitor brought the lying 
spirit with him ! But, it is asked if this assumption be either 
true or just '? 

And why is it that these invisibles will never, or scarcely 



A. C. 5856, 5983, 5985, 5986, 5987, 5988, 5989. 



SPIRITS. 303 

ever, allow mortals to cross-examine them at all ? Or, if it be 
seemingly done, it is only so in appearance, the spirit has it all 
his own way, from first to last. You do not know, and you 
CANNOT know, ivho the witness is, to begin with ! And upon 
such ex-parte, unsatisfactory testimony, (if testimony it may be 
called,) the names of the greatest men who ever lived on this 
earth, are bandied about, and published, as the authors of 
"sayings," "lectures," "sentiments," "pilgrimages," &c., 
and of which, there is not the first panicle of evidence that 
those " spirits" ever had any knowledge at all ! Nay, lan- 
guage is often uttered or written by mediums, all of which is 
attributed to the spirits of George Washington, Dr. B. Frank- 
lin, Thomas Jefferson, Dr. R. Rush, and others, such as those 
men never used when in this world, and such seciarian*cant 
phrases, and senseless jargon even as could be uttered by no 
intelligent mind, in the body or out. 

11. How are we to estimate the teachings of spirits, except, 
as characteristic of the grade of goodness and truth whence 
they come ? " Mediums," when abnormally excited, may 
have uttered many beautiful truths, as all persons, when en- 
tranced by Pathetism, have always been known to do. But 
spirits, when speaking independently, as far as possible, of 
mediums, have uttered some of the most puerile notions, and 
made statements, of themselves and of mortals, evincive of 
ignorance, fanaticism, and falsehood. One aflSrms all the 
dogmas of the old theology ; another teaches the notion of 
transmigration ; another says it never lived in a human body at 
all ; another says this world is soon to be burned up ; another, 
that the human " spirit," is born seventy-five thousand years, 
before it enters the human body in this world, and the like. 
Such things are taught whenever, and wherever certain spirits 
find a state of things which will allow them. That is, if, from 
any causes, they imagine the mortals to whom these things will 
be uttered do not know any better, or that they will receive 
them. 

A.nd whether it be not characteristic of the influence which 
apocryphal spirits have over mortals when the latter become 
so infatuated with these communications as to be unable to 
see these low and repulsive features 1 Or, when mortals 
evince, as they so often do, such an utter unwillingness to be 
told of these things. With such persons, you "lose caste" at 
once, if you speak of these characteristics in the spirit's teach- 
ings, and you are shunned, as unworthy of fellowship or confi- 
dence ! I'his is not always the case, but when it is, what are 
we to infer 1 Our honest design is to find the truth in regard 
to these things, and laboring for it sincerely, what should we 



304 BOOK OF HUMAN NATURE. 

expect from those who profess to be in communication with 
the " higher spheres V 

12. How has it come to pass, that spirits have so often 
trifled with the bereaved domestic affections of husbands and 
wives, parents and children, brothers and sisters ! What else 
can it be 1 Nay, is it not worse than trifling 1 Worse than 
cruel mockery, for an invisible spirit, whom the bereaved and 
disconsolate parent cannot see, to come and pretend to be his 
long-lost child 1 And pretensions of this kind are often made. 

And look at the solemn mockery, the falsehood, the fanati- 
cism, the deception and base wickedness of those spirits " who 
say they are apostles, and are not;" who pretend to be 
" prophets" and " Jesus Christ," even, and who assume to 
command, to teach, and instruct mortals accordingly. 

13. It is well known, that these " manifestations" have given 
rise to what may be termed a new species of literature. A 
large number of books have been written by the spirits, the 
most of which are low in their style, bad in their grammar, 
and contradictory in their teachings. Are we to believe that 
such productions all come from the angels who inhabit the 
spheres above 1 Do angels use such senseless tautologies, 
such sectarian phrases, and how does it happen that when a 
dozen, or " sixty- two" of them speak, or write through one 
medium, they one and all, fall into the use of the same cant 
phrases, peculiar to the medium ? 

However many excellencies may be mixed with these 
evident and characteristic blemishes, they lose much of their 
force by being thus shaded under the darkness, which is in the 
false, always more or less involved in cases of possession^ 
especially when this fact is concealed from mortals ? All 
cases of possession involve falsehood, when the real identity of 
the spirit is denied or misrepresented, whether from design to 
deceive, or from the laws of sympathy. 

14. It is a fact susceptible of the most satisfactory proof, 
that, although these *' manifestations," usually occur in the 
immediate presence of certain persons, called mediums, yet it 
is not always thus ; as in the case of Dr. Phelps' house at 
Stratford, Conn. Many of the most mysterious and unaccount- 
able occurrences took place in his house when no human being 
was, at the time, in the house ; and others took place in parts 
of the house when the family were in, at so great a distance 
from any human being that no one could be considered a 
medium. How did these things occur ? 

15. W^e are asked if these manifestations do not often con- 
firm Swedenborg's " memorable relations," in which he has 
given an account of certain mischievous spirits, who were 
skilled in the art of mussitation, (that is, the art of speaking 



SPIRITS. 805 

obscurely and perplexedly on all subjects, mystifying ;) a vast 
amount of that which comes in tiiis way from spirits being of 
such a mystical character that it is not very easy to tell what 
is meant by it. Almost any quantity of this kind of " spiritual 
literature" might be quoted in support of this view of the sub- 
ject. Here are two specimens : — 

" In speaking of the mortal body, it will be, (all things con- 
sidered) wisest to commence at what (looking at all things) 
may be considered the most, or more strictly speaking, the 
more important part, — and that is the head. 

" In the front part, just below the eyes, there is what is 
generally called, by the common people, the nose. And here 
it will be observed, are two apartments. The nose stands out 
beyond any other part of the head, for a wise, and most high 
purpose." * 

" The universe of universes of vortical suns is one degree ; 
and is mediatorially distributive unto the universes of secon- 
dary vortical suns; and this is the third degree of the series 
of distribution : for every vortical sun primitive is a dependent 
satellite, revolving in the system of that sun of vortices from 
whence it was unfolded ; and is a centre luminary whose un- 
folding is a universe of vortical suns secondary ; and thus is 
established the third distributive degree."! 

If language and ideas like these come from spirits in the 
" higher spheres," as we are assured by the mediums, what 
might we expect from the " lower spheres 1" 

16. We are referred to numerous cases of delusion and in- 
sanity ,| which have been caused by spirits ; and while I ad- 
mit that there may have been some exaggeration on the part of 
those who wished to bring the spiritual theory into disrepute, 
yet I cannot close my eyes to cases of this kind which have 
come under my own observation ; eases, also, where conjugal 
discords have been induced by unequal marriages brought 
about by the advice of '' spirits."^ 

* And we are told by the medium, (Eev. J. M. S.,) that the above 
is the language of Dr. Kichard Eush ! See more like it in a volume 
of " Lectures." Alyo, " Lectures, by Kev. John Murray," same 
medium. The Lectures by this " Dr. Eush," are, certainly, a curiosity 
of the kixid. 

t Spiritual Harbinger. 

X The editor of the Cincinnati Advertiser^ who recently visited the 
State Lunatic Asylum at Columbus, says that there are in that insti- 
tution, twenty persons, whose insanity is clearly traceable to spirit 
rappiugs; and it is stated that there are in the Utica (N. Y.) Lunatic 
Asjdum, nine victims to the same delusion. — Boston Times, December 
6, 1852. 

§ See Boston Daily Mail, October 15, 1852. 



806 BOOK OF HUMAN NATURE. 

17. Mortals have not only become deluded professedly while 
under spiritual influences, but some mediums have become 
irritable, nervous, notional, and liable to numerous offensive 
swooning-s, jerkings, twitching of the muscles, rolling up the 
eyes, falling down, and other discordant motions. Clergymen 
and others when possessed, shut their eyes, throw their limbs 
into unnatural positions, and change the tones of their voice, 
so as to become often ridiculous and exceedingly repulsive. 
And here perhaps we may find the chief cause of the real mis- 
chief of which complaint is made. It is not in the fact, that 
invisibles tell lies; not in the fact, that they oft«n make low 
and discordant communications ; these falsehoods, known to 
be such, would injure no one. But, when clergymen, and 
mortals who are elevated above the mass, such as are believed 
to be safe leaders, and all subjects, when such " religious 
chieftains," yield up their bodies and minds to the complete 
possession and control of apocryphal spirits, their example 
leads others to do the same, till multitudes become over- 
whelmed in one stupendous delusion. " If these things are 
done in the green tree, what will be done in the dry ?" 

18. Property to a considerable amount has been destroyed 
by spirits in the family of Dr. Phelps. More than sixty panes 
of glass in his house were broken. His silver forks were 
bent double. The wearing apparel of his little boy (a medium) 
was torn. to pieces, and stript into tatters, even while upon the 
little fellow's back. Dr. Phelps had his letters and private 
papers destroyed. Sometimes on leaving his desk, his papers 
would be torn or taken away by invisible hands. But I have 
never heard of any thing like this having occurred in any other 
place except Maine. There a young lady had her garments 
torn, and a five dollar bill chafed to pieces in her pocket. 

19. Dr. Phelps is of the opinion that attempts were made 
three times by spirits to cause the death of his two children, 
who were mediums. The daughter lying sick in bed, when a 
string was tied around her neck so tight, that it would have 
caused suffocation if her father had not happened to be near, 
and, perceiving that she was black in the face, he raised her 
up, and thus perceived the cause. He had been sitting in the 
room all the while, and a number of times had removed the 
bed clothes from over her face, where they were placed by 
the spirits. The string was taken from the wrist of a glove, 
and was so short that wiien tied, it was completely embedded 
into the flesh, where it could scarcely be seen. When he 
attempted to untie it, the ends could not be got hold of, they 
were so short. He was confident she would have been 
strangled, had he not been present, and thus prevented the 
mischief. 



SPIKITS. 807 

Were these things clone by " od ?" 

20. Spirits have been known to threaten mortals with cer- 
tain calamities, as if unnecessarily to work upon their fears 
and cause them trouble. A mother in Boston was assured by 
what purported to be her " guardian spirit," that her darling 
boy would be killed by an accident, within a year. The 
mother was much concerned about it ; but the time passed and 
the child is still living. 

An intelligent gentleman, a physician (correspondent of the 
author) was a medium ; and becoming dissatisfied with the 
character of the manifestations, he refused to be a medium 
any longer. To intimidate him, the spirit threatened to smite 
and disable him with paralysis. 

Spirits have often come into circles and given directions 
with a threat of evil, if they were not followed. 

21. Sometimes, and with certain mediums, perhaps always, 
good advice is given when asked. But even these very asso- 
ciate spirits, who often make such " beautiful communications," 
have been known to falsify in respect to their identity ! And, 
in all cases, they evince a characteristic pliability, as if to 
gratify a congenial mortal, who is in communication with 
them. As, if they be asked, " did you touch me, did you rap 
to me, ifec, last night?" The answer will, generally, be 
'* yes," " yes," '* yes," even when the mortal who puts the 
question, knows that there is, and there can be no proof of 
truthfulness. 

22. It is quite natural for mortals to believe even the false- 
hoods told them by apocryphal spirits by whom they are pos- 
sessed. For, when once fully controlled by a spirit, ever so 
low, how is the mortal to distinguish between the truth and 
falsehood uttered by the spirit, by whose power he is spell- 
bound, and of whose real identity and grade he can know 
nothing at all 1 Hence, I have known mediums to ask, and 
beg apocryphal spirits to entrance them, even after those me- 
diums had been repeatedly deceived and duped by those very 
spirits. And, is it not similar in all cases of fascination, or 
possession, whether by mortals, or by spirits'? If as we 
know, mortals may hallucinate and delude mortals by pathetism, 
then why may not this be done by spirits'? And if mortals 
are really possessed by apocryphal spirits, of whose real 
identity nothing is or can be rationally known, then are not 
all real mediums more or less deceived ? 

23. But, we are asked to decide as to the real merits of 
spirit-teachings, which come through possession or infesta- 
tion ? What is the object of the spirits as far as they them- 
selves have declared it, and made it sufficiently specific to bo 



808 BOOK OF HUMAN NATURE. 

understood ? And what can we, what shall we think of spirits 
who make such declarations as these : — 

" We mean to revolutionize the whole race of man. We 
will write what we will, and this medium has not the power to 
refuse what we will to be' done. 1^" Such we intend shall be 
the condition of all men. Human destiny is now measurably 
in our hands under God. The simple movement of a hand 
without volition of the medium is proof of a good spirit. 
When we can control the will of the medium, as we do in 
writing this book, the will of the medium cannot control what 
we wish to write."* 

The " simple movement of the medium's hand without voli- 
tion," is proof of his being possessed by a good spirit ! Think 
of this. And then to find such a grade of spirits declaring 
that they have subjugated the medium to their control, their 
complete control, so that they controlled his will, his soul and 
body!! 

Precisely how these things may be, I cannot assume to de- 
cide. I do not say, that no spirit is ever the person which it 
asserts itself to be, because I do not know. Each one must 
judge for himself. Obtain all the knowledge you can of this 
whole subject, and then decide. | It is certainly something 
gained when we become convinced that spirits have access to 
mortals at all ; and a higher advancement it must be, when we 
become able to discriminate between the false and the true of 
all that comes from that, or any other world. 

24. There is one more feature — that drawn, and the picture 
will perhaps be as near completeness as it is in the power of 
the present limner to make it. This trait, however, is more 
characteristic of mortals, than of any other class oif beings. 
Reference is now made, not to what apocryphal spirits say of 
themselves, as if to astonish and lead captive man's credulity, 
but to the willingness, marvelousness, and confidence, with 
which large multitudes receive the ex-parte statements of in- 
visible beings w^hom they cannot cross-examine if they would, 
and who would not be cross-examined if mortals could do it. 
Witness the confiding joy with which these multitudes from 
day to day converse with the invisibles, under the strong per- 
suasion that they are indeed holding sweet converse with their 
loved ones, whose bodies sleep in death. These mortals, in 
some cases, do not once ask themselves how they know there 
is more than one spirit that ever communicates through any 
one medium, nor how it is to be made certain that this is not 



* Light Sp. World, 
t Md.v.7. 



X Swedenborg's A. C. 5856, 5983 to 5989 



SPIRITS. 809 

the very way that they are to be taught the necessity of more 
caution — ^a lesson they would never have learned but for their 
too hasty reception of these '* manifestations," for something 
which they were never designed in reality to be. Well, if it 
be superior wisdom to rejoice with such " exceeding joy," 
based on mere faith, and in a case of so much solemnity, 
founded on mere conjecture and probabilities, without the first 
syllable of positive proof of personal identity, why, then, re- 
joice, " walk in the light of your fire, and in the sparks that 
ye have kindled." It is sufficient for my present purpose, if I 
signify my knowledge, my respect and love for the vast mul- 
titudes who I know are so much carried away with the hold 
this subject has taken of their credulity, that they are perhaps 
unconscious of the characteristics which have been described. 
Others, it may be, have witnessed more or less of them, but 
under the deep and all-pervading excitement which a subject 
so startling, marvelous, and bewitching even as this, they nev- 
er speak of these things. They are hushed ; while " mes- 
sages," " pilgrimages," " lectures," &c. &c. are published ; 
and books, papers, and pamphlets are multiplied, filled with 
these " spiritual communications," even to repletion. All 
these things must be taken into the account, in order to make 
up a just judgment in the case. 

In what sense are Spirits ever reliable ? 
243. As friends of harmonial truth, we must be ready to 
follow wherever Truth may lead, in deciding this question. 
Some, I am aware, may not as yet have had sufficient oppor- 
tunities for questioning all the sources from which information 
is to be obtained. 

It was, with me, the first question after admitting that man- 
ifestations were made by spirits, and one which I had to de- 
cide in my own mind, before I ventured to write a single arti- 
cle on the subject. And now it seems to be the question, at 
the present time, among all who have much knowledge of the 
recent audible spiritual manifestations. Suppose we were to 
ask a similar question in regard to the human race 1 Is man 
reliable 1 Now, we can imagine that you would probably de- 
mur against answering this question at all, till it was made 
more specific. And hence you would say, that if questioned 
in respect to any particular class of the race, you could give a 
more satisfactory answer. 

You would admit that no one class are always reliable ; — 
neither clergymen, whether Protestants or Papists ; nor Chris- 
tians, nor Jews, nor Pagans, nor Mohammedans. 

And so, if you were pressed with this inquiry, you would 
say that you could answer it better still if it were applied to 



310 BOOK OF HUMAN NATURE. 

one person, or to one class of characters. Thus, you would 
say of one class, you would rely on their testimony as to the 
laws of Agriculture ; of another class, you would rely on their 
testimony concerning Astronomy. Or, in other words, you 
would have it understood, that before you could tell how much 
you would rely on the testimony of any human being, you 
must know : 

1. Who it is that testifies, and what his previous character 
lias been for goodness and truth. Hence, if it be, as it seems 
at present, a matter of impossibility for the external and the 
purely spiritual to be perfectly united, then, we cannot know, 
for a certainty, who the spirit is that takes possession of a 
mortal's body. 

2. What are the circumstances under which he testifies 1 
What is his motive 1 What is he to gain or lose by his testi- 
mony? And here comes into view the question of possession, 
because if it be the spirit's chief design to gain and maintain 
entire control over the mortal, of course ail that spirit says and 
does, will directly or indirectly comport with that design, as 
far as the spirit is supposed to understand himself, and what 
he wishes to accomplish. 

How then, shall this query, as to the reliability of spirits, be 
answered? Shall it be wholly by spirits, themselves? We 
all believe that spirits are men, in another sphere of existence. 
They are men, not human, but spiritual ; men, not flesh and 
blood, but inform and constitution — spirit men. And if spirit: 
men, then the sphere into which all go up, by death, must con- 
tain spirit-women, spirit-children, comprising all of every 
nation, kindred, tongue, and people, who have lived in human 
bodies, and from which they have departed to the spirit land. 
What, then, should we suppose the answer would be, if given 
by the Divine Intelligence to the question as to the reliabi- 
lity of spirits ? Could we imagine an answer from him, that 
should leave out of view the preliminaries enumerated above, 
in regard to the reliability of men ? Is it not manifest that this 
question cannot be answered, except in view of its necessary 
preliminaries ? 

1 ask a sectarian Christian, Is the Bible reliable? And 
before he gives me an answer, he asks me, " Reliable for what 
purpose ?" And I answer, " For teaching the science of 
Geology.''^ " Oh, no," says he, "the Bible is not reliable for 
that purpose, at all." And the same remark might be made of 
the clergy, generally ; for it is not assumed that they are 
reliable as teachers of Geology or Mathematics. For some 
things the Bible and clergymen are reliable ; for other pur- 
poses they are not reliable. 

Now to the question, Are spirits reliable ? I answer, Yes ; 



SPIRITS. 311 

they are reliable for teaching and demonstrating the exist- 
ence OF THE Spiritual World. If you make the inquiry 
still more specific, and ask whether the " communications" in- 
discriminately made by spirits to mortals, are always reliable, 
and to be taken for what they purport to be, I answer, No. 

But, we shall be told here, perhaps, that clairvoyants who 
have been generally supposed the best judges on this subject, 
have affirmed that " spirits never deceive." And one who has 
certainly utterd very many beautiful sayings about the spirit 
Sphere, has said, speaking of all who have passed from death: 

"Spirits have no Janguage whereby to express untruths, 
neither unkindness. No one in the spiritual world misunder' 
stands another. No one here mis appreciates another. Justice 
pervades all the habitations of the angels."* 

" It is pleasing to behold these heavenly societies ; for I see 
them at this moment, existing in the most perfect degrees of 
brotherly love, and joined inseparably together by constant 
ascending and descending affections. The first society is, 
indeed, low, in comparison to the highest ; but the variety and 
the degrees, nevertheless, form of the whole a complete 
brotherhood. 

" I perceive that all spirits are engaged in loving their 
neighbors and advancing their welfare. And it is well to 
relate that every one is engaged in that for which he has an 
affection, and there is, therefore, no confusion. "f 

I repeat it, much that is truthful and beautiful has been 
uttered by the clairvoyant from whom the above is quoted ; 
much that has (assisted vast multitudes in coming to a better 
understanding of the Divine, and the '* Principles of Nature." 
And may be, perhaps, that he was in the exercise of more 
benevolence than wisdom when he uttered the above. He 
may have placed the lowest " society," perhaps, too high, when 
he said there was *' no confusion" or discord there. 

And another, still " greater than he," may have placed it too 
low, when he said : — 

" Wherefore, as an angel thinks, wills, speaks, and acts, 
from his own good, so does an infernal spirit from his own 
evil ; and to act from evil itself is to do so from all things 
which are in evil. Such wickedness then manifests itself as 
exceeds all belief. There are thousands of evils which then 
burst forth from evil itself. This I can certify, that their 



* " The Philosophy of Spiritual Intercourse?'' By A. J. Davis. But 
the papers (Cleveland Herald, Dec. 1852,) have reported Mr. D., as 
having stated in a public lecture that full " sixty per cent of the so- 
called spiritual manifestations, were bogus," or not reliable. 

t A. J. Davis. 



812 BOOK OF HUMAN NATURE. 

wickedness is so great that it is hardly possible to describe 
even a thousandth part of it. — Swedenborg''s Heaven and 
Hell, 577. 

If I understand what is taught here, it implies that " evil," 
is absolute in itself in the samp sense, that goodness is absolute 
itself. That Swedenborg may, perhaps, on the whole, have 
given us more reliable information about the philosophy of the 
spirit world, than any other one man, may be admitted. But 
that he and Mr. Davis have uttered nothing but truth, I should 
not dare to affirm. 

There are two questions of which we must not lose sight in 
this investigation, and which are brought to view by what is 
above represented by two persons, both of whom are admitted 
to have been very familiar with the spiritual world. 

1. If one spirit is so far below another as to do what the 
higher one disapproves of, is it correct to say of that sphere, 
there is " no confusion" there ? 

2. Again : If, as we understand Swedenborg to teach, evil 
is ABSOLUTE, and the lowest in hell are never attracted so as to 
progress to those above, then how can it be said, that all 
spirits have one origin, or that the same Divine Being is the 
equal Father of all 1 

Let us follow where Truth leads, whatever may have been 
said about that world by one man, or two, or by all men. We 
assume that the spiritual world, must be its own best exposi- 
tor. One man, nor one spirit cannot either comprehend the 
whole of it, or be capable of communicating to others all that 
that world may have to make known of itself. And what this 
world may yet make known of itself, we have yet to learn. 

Reasoning from the analogies of Nature, it is not wisdom, 
nor safe, to rely, as some have done, upon phenomena evinc- 
ing so much of discord and the false, as we find in these man- 
ifestations. The presumption is, therefore, that we have not 
yet received all that is to be known upon this subject. Nature 
presents her developments, on the whole, harmoniously. 
When, therefore, all that we are able to perceive of her work 
is fragmentary and contradictory — dark, false, apocryphal and 
uncertain, we should pause and wait till we see the whole sub- 
ject in all its parts before we build theories upon iL 

Posse§sioii, Infestation, 

244. As this question in respect to the fact of spiritual pos- 
session of mortals, is one of paramount importance, and has so 
much to do with spiritual communications now prevailing all 
over the world, it may be proper to devote our attention to this 
feature of the subject with somewhat more minuteness of de- 



SPIRITS. 813 

tail. Is what is called " magnetizing- by spirits," possible, and 
if so, to what extent may it be carried, and what are the dan- 
gers, if any, that beset this condition when o^fce induced 1 
We have already seen that persons may fall into a state of 
trance, from innumerable causes — from diseases, from fright, 
from excitement, religious, or of any other kind, from the 
thoughts of it, or from imaginary or real associations, present 
or absent. And hence, how easy it must be for any highly 
susceptible person, to form an idea of an imaginary spirit, and 
be " magnetized" by it. And so others may have the pres- 
ence of spirits when they sink into the trance, and they may 
imagine one of those spirits produces that state. Or, they 
may be made to believe that a spirit will cure a certain dis- 
ease, and the disease is cured ! Why not ? And, I do not 
see how, in full view of the history of this whole subject, the 
fact of possession by spirits can be doubted for one moment. 
The whole drift of all, from mediums and spirits who have 
been concerned in making these modern manifestations to 
man's external senses, fall into the same category of Obses- 
sion, Possession and Infestation. The fifty pamphlets and 
books which have been recently published, all purporting to 
have been written by mediums who were possessed by certain 
spirits, and the numerous " communications" from apocryphal 
invisible personalities, with which certain "spiritual periodi- 
cals" are filled from week to week — all, all combine to prove 
this doctrine of possession. Indeed, the mediumship of mor- 
tals necessarily involves this very idea of possession, and espe- 
cially in all those cases where they are said to be involuntari- 
ly and unconsciously controlled by spirits, who use the hand 
or tongue of the medium, for speaking or writing. In our 
attempts to find the cause or causes of phenomena, it is desir- 
able to ascertain if possible the germ, the starting principle. 
We want the most simple statement that can be given of that 
which is fundamental, the most comprehensive and essential to 
the whole subject. And it is worthy of notice, that, from 
whatever stand-point we put the question to these " spiritual 
manifestations," as a whole, the answer comes back — Ob- 
session I We ask the mediums, the communications, the fa- 
naticism, the contradictions, the "beautiful messages" that 
are made, without the first syllable of real authentication, 
and the answer is — Possession! The medium is undoubtedly 
possessed by one spirit, and is constituted a medium in this 
way, and in no other. And, observe, it is not by two, or an 
indefinite number of spirits, but by one only — one spirit pos- 
sesses each medium, and that one spirit makes all the mani- 
festations that are or can be made through that medium. Or» 
at least, if that spirit»-medium do not give all the responses, all 

14 



314 BOOK OF HUMAN NATUKE. 

the answers that are given come through it, as really as the 
questions are put to the " spirits," through the external medi- 
uoi. Mediunis are constituted in this manner. Becoming in- 
fested and possessed by a spirit, that spirit is more or less 
clairvoyant of all that passes through the medium's mind. 
And here we have the reason for congeniality with the exter- 
nal medium always. (224.) If an uncongenial mortal ap- 
proaches the medium, it is difficult or impossible to get cor- 
rect answers, or even any answers at all. But when the spec- 
tator is congenial, and like the external medium, in such cases 
only, the associate spirit of the medium possesses, for the 
time being, the one who asks for responses ; and the answers 
always will be found to depend upon congeniality or spiritual 
affinities with the medium. 

I may be reminded, perhaps, that the Bible refers to a case 
where a female medium was " possessed of seven" spirits at 
once. But I suppose this number " seven," being a signifi- 
cant numeral among the Jews, was used, not to specify the 
precise number of spirits that had got into Mary Magdalene, 
but rather, the exceedingly low grade of the " manifestations" 
that were made through her. If, therefore, this account be of 
any authority in the premises, it would tend to show that the 
larger the number of spirits who possess the medium, the 
worse the case becomes. 

It is so in Psychology among mortals. That is, persons 
who are " possessed," or entranced by the largest number of 
operators, the soonest lose their own individuality and self- 
control, so as to be unfitted for the duties of Manhood. Hence 
it seems to me a relieving consideration, that a medium should 
be possessed by one spirit rather than a dozen. In some cases 
it might at least be a real benefit to the spirit to be associated 
with mediutns that are truthful, intelligent, and good. 

Taking then the most liberal and candid view of this whole 
subject, it brings before us the following propositions for an 
answer : — 

1. That all mediums, (especially the " writing" and 
" speaking," so called) may form a select, exclusive, and pe- 
culiar class of mortals ; precisely the same as somnambulists 
and " mesmeric subjects," are a peculiar class by themselves. 

2. This class of mortals are more sympathetic, more easily 
hallucinated and deceived than others. They have not the 
power to resist certain influences exerted over them. 

3. That, if the spiritual world corresponds with this world, 
then it may be, that these mediums are possessed by a distinct 
and peculiar grade of spirits, those nearest to this external 
world, and from whom manifestations to our external senses 
must be made, if made at all. The whole, therefore, amounts 



I 



SPIEITS. 315 

to little, if any thing (as yet) more than possession, spiri- 
tual clairvoyance, or congeniality with the medium, and the 
medium's associate spirit. Or, if in a few cases, it would 
appear to rise above this, yet, the whole subject is confessedly 
so fragmentary and mixed, up with so much discord, and that 
which is not reliable, that we perceive in these things grounds 
for caution and admonition. The whole subject is not yet 
fully developed, it is not understood, the whole picture is not 
yet seen, so that we are not able, as yet, to judge accurately 
of its proportions and real merits. 

While, therefore, we may not find, what we should call ab- 
solute evil in any of these manifestations, this view of them 
will assist in accounting for many of the difficulties which do, 
certainly, beset this subject. It is hard to believe that spirits 
who inhabit the higher spheres, whose names have been pub- 
lished by different " writing mediums," could be attracted to 
manifest themselves among so much confusion and discord. 
And equally difficult is it to believe that Swedenborg, Wash- 
ington, Franklin, Dr. Rush, and others, would attempt to at- 
tract the attention of mortals under circumstances where it-is 
obvious that their " communications" could not be satisfac- 
torily authenticated. 

We can, perhaps, all admit that whatever views may be 
taken of these things by individuals, they would seem calcu- 
lated to make us all better acquainted with that which apper- 
tains to the spiritual world, and man's condition after death, 
because they bring these questions directly before us for an 
answer. There are other points, also, which, if they do 
not entirely settle, they will, doubtless, have a tendency to 
keep before us, for consideration, till we shall have sufficient 
"light from the spirit world," to decide them satisfactorily to 
ourselves at least : — 

1. As to whether the " medium" is not in most or all cases 
possessed by one spirit at the time the manifestations are 
made 1 

2. As to whether " communications" are ever made directly 
to mortals' external senses, from spirits who are high in re- 
spect to knowledge or goodness 1 Does not the disparity be- 
tween the spheres filled by mortals and such spirits, render 
this exceedingly difficult if" not impossible? And hence, all 
such communications coming to us through obsession, cannot 
be depended upon in themselves, considered for goodness and 
truth, any more than we depend upon communications from 
mortals. When addressed to man's external senses they are 
attended with many antagonisms, discords and irregularities in 
the mode of communicatmg, which render it more or less 
difficult to arrive at a satisfactory knowledge, either of the 



316 BOOK OF HUMAN NATURE.. 

person communicating or of the meaning and intention of what 
is said. 

For when the answers are given by the associate spirit, 
who obsesses the medium, instead of the relatives, or 
" Apostles" purporting to speak, they may be attempted from 
a motive of kindness, either to the external medium, whom the 
spirit is attempting to serve, or the mortal who asks the ques- 
tion. For if that mortal has no guardian spirit present who 
can answer in that way, then, of course, tlie associate spirit 
of the medium tries to obsess the mind from whom the infor- 
mation must be obtained, which the questioner asks for. And 
when the spirit succeeds in its efforts at possession, the 
answers are correct ; or if it fails because the mortal is not 
sufficiently obsessible, then the answers are wrong, also ; and 
thus, we can account for the failure to get tests from " guar- 
dian spirits," often, when they are said to be present. 

Should not these facts render mortals cautious in asking or 
receiving advice from spirits of whose personal identity they 
can know very little or nothing at all 1 

3. Is it not questionable, also, whether on the whole, any 
mortal who has an accurate knowledge of the " spirit world,'* 
would desire or consent to be thus possessed and controlled by 
an apocryphal spirit, of whose identity he cannot in the nature 
of things have any reliable knowledge 1 

4. And whether, if the human body may be possessed in 
this manner by apocryphal spirits, then may not diseases be 
either caused or cured by them 1 Hence, may not those in- 
sane convulsive movements of the muscles and limbs of me- 
diums be justly attributed to spirits ? When, therefore, per- 
sons professing to be mediums, are possessed by spirits, and 
discord follow in the cerebral system, and they jerk, jump, roll, 
and toss their limbs about, what must we infer'? When mor- 
tals do things of which they themselves can give no rational 
explanation, is it unjust to consider them hallucinated or 
insane ? 

Finally, then, upon the most careful, candid, and patient 
attention, I have been able to bestow upon this mysterious 
subject, I come, upon the whole, to the following conclusions : 

1. That we want more facts, or, the facts already developed 
should be more widely known. It is altogether premature, to 
begin to theorize about, " Life in the Spheres," and " Pil- 
grimages" of apocryphal spirits, from phenomena, mixed up as 
these are with so very many perplexing difficulties. We want 
more knowledge of these strange things. Mortals become 
mediums, and take it for granted, that Washington, Jeiferson, 
Rush, or Franklin, write and speak through them, when, were 



SPIRITS. 317 

those mediums familiar with all the facts in respect to obssession 
they would not, could not, be deceived in this manner. 

2. That this subject so effectually possesses, overwhelms, 
and controls the minds of certain " mediums," and others, that 
they are incapacitated for judging- accurately as to its real 
difficulties. Such persons, have unconsciously become sec- 
tarians. It is difficult and often impossible to approach them 
with any views, different from their own. 

3. In the present state of the case, we cannot take the 
testimony t)f mediums (who say they are not conscious of what 
they do,) for spiritual " voices" or communications. If the 
writing mediums are not conscious, they cannot affirm that 
their own minds did not indite every word they have written ! 
If they say they are conscious, but that they do not write in 
their normal state, this I admit, as I have already shown, what 
I know to be true, that the nervous system, when by any means 
abnormally excited, the person will do many strange and 
marvelous things, of which he may at the time, have no know- 
ledge. Nay, these mediums, according to their own showing, 
may write any number of " Pilgrimages," " Voices," " Lec- 
tures," and books, — write them in their normal state, as much 
so as that state is normal in which I am now writing, — and 
yet, mark ! the power of the spirits over their nervous systems 
and memory (115,) is such, that they may take away all con- 
scious recollection of the whole process! ! Nor can there be 
any doubt but the mediums have been hallucinated, even to this 
extent by spirits, as they may be again. 

4. That OBSESSION and possession by spirits is not desirable, 
if we may judge of what has already taken place. Numbers 
(not all) who were good mediums I know having become re- 
pelled with the discordant, and unsatisfactory manifestations 
made through them, have refused to be such any longer. And 
those who continue, in love with the apocryphal invisibles, 
may do so from the laws of mental hallucination already 
described. They cannot test the identity of the spirits by 
whom they are possessed ; in the nature of the case this is 
impossible. And thus, while bewitched, fascinated by an 
apocryphal spirit, how consoling for the medium to believe it 
is a beloved father, mother, brother, sister, lover, or friend ! 
Indee J, the medium in such cases becomes dogmatically con- 
fident that he or she is not deceived, they know and are cer- 
tain that they are not hallucinated, in respect to the identity of 
their associate spirits ! All this we should expect, as a matter 
of course, in cases of real possession. Hence, I conclude, that 
it is not good for mortals to surrender their manhood as many 



8i-8 BOOK or HUMAN NATURE. 

mediums have done, in uttering- the inspirations of apocryphal 
spirits,* 

Investigation is not possession. Investigation, free, and 
unrestricted should be encouraged, always and everywhere, on 
this subject and on all others. Nothing- said here, must be 
interpreted into the notion that any evil can come from the 
most liberal and patient course of investigation. Seek for the 
Truth. Make use of consistent means for finding it. But do 
not unman yourself, do not give away your own self-hood. 
Think for yourself, act, and judge for yourself in all things, 
especially in respect to those which relate to another world 



245. Considered then as a whole, and especiaHy in view of the 
effects which these things are evidently producing in the minds 
of mortals, they seem to force upon us a sense of danger, from 
which all the good that has been affirmed of this subject, does 
not wholly set us free. 

1. It arises, first, from following the undue excitement of 
the Love Element, which reigns supreme in every humari 
heart. What is more powerful than conjugal, parental, filial, 
or fraternal Love 1 And, when this love is once bereaved by 
the death of its object, it often becomes morbidly excited, and 
in such a condition of mind, how ready — yea, how willing, is 
the bereaved lover to be deceived ! How the heart yearns 
for those loved ones whose forms have departed out of sight, 
and what would we not willingly do, or suffer, or believe, if, 
indeed, we could once more gain access to these spirits, in- 
visible though they be ! (94.) 

And thus it is, mortals become blind to those dangers which 
beset them. Led on by Love (instead of Wisdom,) that is 
stronger than death ; the hope of its gratification, often mag- 
nifies mole-hills into mountains, a whisper into the tones of 
thunder, and a thousand mere conjectures or suggestions into 
mathematical demonstrations of personal identity. 

2. The danger to which I allude arises also from the direct 
tendency of this whole subject to the undue excitement of the 

* It was contemplated by the author, to publish in, this vohime a 
ninnbcr ofletters received by him from iutelligent gentlemen, in Phihi- 
delpbia, Pittsburgh, Butfalo, New York, and other parts of the coun- 
try, in which similar views to his own are detailed. Also, fiom 
intelligent persons in different localities who have, themselves been 
mediiuns. for all the phases of these developments, until they came to 
the conclusions stated here, and renounced their mediumship al- 
together; not the angels, not the spiritual truths, but this method of 
connnunicating with the " spirit world." These letters would, of 
themselves, form an interesting volume. 



DANGEES. 819 

organs of Marvelousness. The bare idea of receiving a com- 
munication from the World of Immortal Spirits, is start- 
ling — and, wlien it once gets full possession of the mind, 
who will say there is no danger of being deceived and led 
astray ? Remember, that the undue excitement of Marvel- 
ousness is Hallucination ; and mental hallucination, too long 
continued, is delusion, fanaticism, and insanity. Hence the 
cases of suicide that have occurred connected with this sub- 
ject. I admit, indeed, that no case of insanity may have oc- 
curred when the victim was not, perhaps, predisposed to that 
state ; and hence it might have been superinduced by mere 
joy, or by a sectarian revival of religion, as such cases have 
often been. But in all these cases, the insanity is induced by 
appeals made directly to the organs of credulity. And these 
appeals, so long and so earnestly continued, must tend to in- 
sanity. This subject, therefore, is no more calculated to ren- 
der people insane, than many systems of religious teachings, 
only in so far as it addresses the organs of Marvelousness 
more exclusively. 

3. And then, again, the danger of insanity must be en- 
hanced by the fact of spiritual possession. When mortals 
imagine themselves in the possession and under the complete 
control of invisible spirits, they may be said to be in more or 
less danger. The temperament that renders a mortal suscep- 
tible of spiritual possession, is the one most liable to those 
disturbances which result in monomania and real insanity. 
Such I believe to be the facts in this case. Let the candid 
ponder them. 

4. And finally, from our ignorance of the spiritual world, 
our utter want of information as to the grade of spirits who 
offer to teach, possess and control mortals. If we put the 
foregoing details of what spirits have done, with the accounts 
which one supposed to be the best acquainted with the world 
whence those spirits come, it does seem to make out a case 
of some danger. Not that I suppose Swedenborg has taught 
unmixed truth on this subject, perhaps — but one fact must 
be admitted, viz : that though he does not seem to have anti- 
cipated any thing like these modern spiritual manifestations t^ 
man's external senses, yet he has given us in his descript" 
of the " world of spirits," (not spiritual world, including thb 
heavens of the angels,) an account which does agree singular- 
ly enough, with what we know, and must admit to be the 
leading features of these manifestations. Of this there can be 
no dispute. 

As I have myself been assisted by the writings of this great 
Teacher, whom I believe to have been illuminated in a very 



320 BOOK OF HUMAN KATURE. 

high degree, I could wish that others might receive a like 
benefit from his labors. 

Travelers when starting upon a long journey, and to a coun- 
try of which they have no personal knowledge, naturally in- 
quire of those who have gone before, and who have given the 
most satisfactory evidence of their acquaintance with the land 
of hopes and fears. And, to imagine one familiar with the 
laws of the spiritual world, who has not read Swedenborg, is 
as paradoxical as it would be to suppose a person duly 
qualified to practice law in a country of whose language the 
first rudiments had not yet been learned : — 

" Something shall now be said concerning the discourse of 
spirits with man. It is believed by many, that man may be 
taught of the Lord by spirits speaking with him; but they 
who believe this, and are willing to believe it, do not know 
that it is connected with danger to their souls. As soon as 
spirits begin to speak with man, they come out of their spirit- 
ual state into the natural state of man ; and in this case they 
know that they are with man, and conjoin themselves with 
the thoughts of his affection, and from those thoughts speak 
with him ; they cannot enter into any thing else, for similar 
affection and consequent thought conjoins all, and dissimilar 
separates. It is owing to this circumstance that the speaking 
spirit is in the same principles with the man to whom he 
speaks, whether they be true or false, and likewise that he 
excites them, and by his affection conjoined to the man's affec- 
tion, strongly confirms them ; hence it is evident that none 
other than similar spirits speak with man, or manifestly oper- 
ate upon him, for manifest operation coincides with speech. 
Hence it is no other than enthusiastic spirits speak with 
enthusiasts ; also, no other than Quaker spirits operate upon 
Quakers, and Moravian spirits upon Moravians ; the case 
would be similar with Arians, with Socinians, and with other 
heretics. All spirits speaking with man are no other than 
such as have been men in the world, and were then of such a 
quality ; that this is the case hath been given me to know by 
repeated experience. From these considerations it is evident 
to what danger man is exposed, who speaks with spirits, or^ 
who manifestly feels their operation. Man is ignorant of the 
quality of his own affection, whether it be good or evil, and 
with what other beings it is conjoined ; and if he is in the 
conceit of his own intelligence, his attendant spirits favor 
every thought which is thence derived ; in like manner, if any 
one is disposed to favor particular principles, enkindled by a 
certain fire, which hath place with those who are not in truth 
from genuine affection ; when a spirit from similar affection 
favors man's thoughts or principles, then one leads the other, 



SPIRITS. 321 

as the blind the blind, until both fall into the pit."— ^;joc. 
Ex-p. 1182. 

My own observations confirm this view of the suhject, 
though I am not convinced that these spirits do know as much 
of mortals as is often supposed. Indeed, in other portions of 
his writings, Swedenborg himself denies to ihem any consider- 
able knowledge of mortals : — 

" The angels of heaven, and also the spirits under the hea- 
vens-, know nothing of man, as neither does man know any 
thing of them', because the state of spirits and angels is spirit- 
ual, and the state of man is natural, which two states are con- 
nected solely by correspondences, and connection by corres- 
pondences does indeed cause them to be united in affections, 
but not in the thoughts, wherefore one does not know anything 
of the other; that is, man does not know anything of the spi- 
rits with whom he is united as to his affections, nor spirits of 
man, for that which is not in the thought, but only in the af- 
fection, is not known, because it does not appear or is not 
seen. The Lord alone knows the thoughts of men." — A. E. 
1346. (And the same, A. R. 943.) 

I have been often amazed to find, as I thought I did, how 
really, nay, utterly ignorant certain spirits were, of persons, 
places and things of which they professed to have knowledge. 
But, indeed, whether it be precisely as is represented in 
these extracts, it is difficult to say. One thing, however, is 
evident, that it cannot be any great benefit to me to be pos- 
sessed by spirits as ignorant as I know some of them to be, or 
at least as they seem to be. 

" The spirits which are with man, do not know that they are 
with man ; only angels from the Lord know this, ^r they are 
adjoined to his soul or spirit, but not to his body ; for those 
things which from the thoughts are determined into speech, 
and from the will into the acts in the body, flow ordmately 
into act by common influx, according to correspondences with 
the Grand Man ; wherefore the spirits attendant upon man 
have nothing in common with these things ; thus they do not 
speak hy man's tongue, for this would be obsession, neither do 
they see through his eyes what is in the world, nor hear 
through his ears what is passing there." — A. C. 5862. 

This would seem to imply that man's guardian angels do 
not possess his body, as is the case in the modern manifesta- 
tions. 

" The spirits do not know at all that they are with man, but 
when they are with him, they believe that all things which are 
of the man's memory and thought are theirs." — H. H. 292. 
14* 



822 . BOOK OF HUMAN NATURE. 

*" It has been shown me to the life, in what manner spirits 
flow in with man ; when they come to him, they put on ail 
things of his memory, thus all things which the man has learned 
and imbibed from infancy, and the spirits suppose these things 
to be their own, thus they act as it were the part of man with 
a man ; but it is not allowed them to enter further with man, 
than to his interiors which are of the thought and will, not to 
the exteriors which are of the actions and speech ; for these 
latter things come into act by a general influx from the Lord 
without the mediation of particular spirits and, angels. But 
spirits, although they act the part of man with a man, as to 
those things which are of his thought and will, still however 
they do not know that they are with man, by reason that they 
possess all things of his memory, and believe that those things 
are not another's but their own ; and by reason also, lest they 
should hurt man ; for unless the spirits who are with man from 
hell believed those things to be their own, they would attempt 
by every method to destroy man as to the body and as to the 
soul, for this is infernal delight itself," — A. C. 6192. 

It will be noticed what Swedenborg affirms about spirits not 
being able to flow into man's externals, of action and speech. 
However, we now know, that they do this in all cases of pos- 
session. If his meaning be, that the angels or spirits of the 
higher life never do this, the matter becomes plain and con- 
sistent with what I have already advanced upon this subject. 

Cxuardiaii Angels. 

246. Full justice perhaps, could not be done to the general 
subject of pneumatology without a consideration of the ques- 
tion in respect to guardian angels. 

It is weil known, that- the word angelos has been used to 
signify, one who brings a message, who executes the com- 
mands of one party to another. And so angello, " I tell, de- 
clare, deliver a message, bring information." Though, among 
the Hebrews and Greeks, the terms which we have rendered 
into angel, were generally applied to agents, sent from the 
higher spheres, they were not always so used ; but sometimes 
were applied to human beings, or to spiritual, either good or 
evil. 

At present, this word is applied almost exclusively to spirits, 
who have left the human body ; as it is beginning to be under- 
stood, that there are no other spirits, except such as once in- 
habited external or animal forms. The notion may, indeed, 
prevail to a very limited extent, that there are spirits who 
never inhabited human bodies ; but this notion is just as far 
below the truth, as its counterpart, which teaches that there is 
no immortal spirit in the human body. 



I 



GUARDIAN ANGELS. . 823 

That the spirits of our deceased relatives become our guar- 
dian angels, is a doctrine believed by different classes of human 
beings from the earliest ages of the world. Multitudes, indeed, 
who reject the writings of Swedenborg, in respect to the phi- 
losophy of the other spheres, nevertheless cherish the belief 
that they are the objects of paternal care on the part of the 
angels who are good and true. 

The term "guardian" would seem to express the relation 
which the spirits of the higher spheres hold to us, and hence 
the offices they perform for us. And to guard and guide us 
they must, of course, be always near to us. They do for us 
what our spiritual necessities require, and Vvhat we cannot do 
for ourselves. The work is spiritual. It may sometimes ex- 
tend perhaps indirectly, into the external or physical. But 
what they do is not only done for our own spirits, but it is 
done by spiritual friends and with spiritual hands. 

I do not perceive in what sense we should call spirits 
" guardians," who mix up with so much external confusion and 
discord. And these modern manifestations do not, certainly, 
on the whole, partake so much of that which entitles them to 
the name of paternal, or guardian. And yet, proving the im- 
mediate presence of the spiritual world, they go far towards an 
assurance of the kind offices of those who are above the exter- 
nal, and who may be justly called our guardian angels. 

The child looks to its guardian for information as well as 
guidance. It is the office of parent to impart both. Thus we 
get our first knowledge of the spiritual world from our guardian 
angels, precisely the same as the child gets his first views of 
this external world from his parents, or those of his family that 
are nearest to him. 

After death, on entering the spiritual world, we must be de- 
pendent upon the guidance of our own immediate guardian 
angels. And is not this most desirable to one and all 1 On 
entering a strange place, about which we have had doubts and 
most distressing fears, what could be more agreeable to us 
than to be met on the threshold by those whom we know and 
love the best 1 What else could so quickly dispel our fears, 
so fully inspire us with hope, and give us a feeling of security 
and pleasure, as the presence of those whom we know and 
love'? Nay, more ; to find those whom we had loved the most 
in this world, the nearest to us in that ? We should bear in 
mind, that though the other world is peopled with myriad mil- 
lions more than this, our transition into that spirit sphere does 
not make us feel at home there, without our own family, any 
more than we feel at home here, when surrounded by strangers. 
Before we can feel at home, anywhere, we must become more 
or less acquainted. And if you enter a strange place, where 



324 . BOOK OF HUMAN NATURE. 

you have no acquaintance with any one, it may take you a long 
while before you may feel perfectly contented. This want of 
an acquaintance or friend in a strange place, contributes much 
to that state of mind known under the term "home-sick." 
And if spirits could be supposed to be "earth-sick," or de- 
sirous of coming back again to mortality, this must be sup- 
posed to be the reason. They went into the spiritual world, 
of which they had no previous knowledge : a state where they 
found no near friend with whom to take " sweet counsel." 
Indeed, we do not see how the conviction can be avoided by 
any who believe in a spiritual world at all, that when persons 
enter it, who had no previous knowledge either of its nature 
or its inhabitants, it is not so happy a world to them, as it 
must be after they become more acquainted with it ; nor so 
agreeable to them on entering, as it must be to those whose 
friends are all there, and who are so well acquainted with its 
nature and laws, as to live in constant longing for its enjoy- 
ments 1 What else was meant in those oft-quoted words, 
" These all died in faith, (belief of what they would enjoy in the 
spiritual world,) not having (already) received (or entered that 
world) the promise (of a future spiritual existence) but having 
seen (that state in the future, their hope was excited by which 
they anticipated their future home, in the spirit land, an inhe- 
ritance which they could never realize while) on this earth." 
Thus it has always been. Those who know the most of that 
" land of promise," exercise the most patience in the journey 
which leads to its possession. 

It does, therefore, seem to me, that those angels who are 
truly entitled to this appellation of " guardian," are not in the 
grade of those who usually come into the external world, and 
possess the bodies of men. They are of a higher order, or at 
any rate, it seems to me very desirable that my guardian 
spirit should be above that grade already described. And that 
I have such, that alt have them, is indeed a most delightful 
thought. Yes, such angels there are in the mansions above, 
ready and always willing for offices of spiritual instruction 
and kindness to mortals. And, how consoling this thought to 
the sons and daughters of sorrow. How restraining to the 
wayward. How necessary, even, for the bereaved orphan. 
Now, he is not alone. 

Harmonious, truthful, and good, says the lonely stranger, as 
I am attracted by you, t cease from sorrow. Now, indeed, I 
become conscious of the care of my Father in heaven. Sur- 
lounded by angels, gentle and kind, so peaceful, so pleasant; 
come, O, come to me. Attract me ever. My higher nature 
expands to receive you. Welcome, ihrice welcome here. 
I even long for your presence ; and exult as I become spiri* 



TEST OF USE. • 325 

tually conscious of your society. Tossed by the tempests of 
time, I become tranquil when you are near. Sent by One 
above us all, without whose notice not even a sparrow falls, 
helpless to the ground. Now, I understand, because you im- 
part to me, as you, also, receive from those above you, the 
light which makes manifest the beauties of that heavenly 
world. Hence it is, I aspire for higher degrees of goodness 
and truth, as I become conscious of my own true destiny. O 
blissful thought, indeed. For what, though I yet animate an 
external form ! Am I not what you are 1 Have 1 not eyes 
which see, without the sun's light 1 Ears that hear, without 
earthly sound ? Senses which cannot be satisfied without you 1 
No more animal life without air, than spiritual life without a 
spiritual world. Thus, becoming one with those that are 
above, I am led to goodness and wisdom that are above all. 

No more do I lean on a reed that is broken. No more 
wander in darkness. No more feed on that which cannot 
satisfy. 

Yes, well do I know you. In your external form I knew 
you. We took sweet counsel together. When you threw 
aside the outward covering, I was with you. Then you left 
me ? No ; you did not leave me. The magnet leaves not the 
pole by which it is attracted. 

Precious friends of my soul ! In the depths of my inner- 
most life I bless you. Struggling with the external, the fleet- 
ing, my spirit follows hard after you! Yes, you know what I 
am, and what I would be. An evenly-balanced, well-governed, 
intelligent mind, comprehended in harmony, which, indeed, 
is contentment, gratitude and hope, for ever. 

The Oreat Test of Use. 

247. The question comes up here, admitting the truthfulness 
and justice of the representations made of these manifestations 
from spirits, even supposing they came from the lower or 
even the lowest grade, in order to reach men's external senses 
in the manner stated, what is their use ? What good will they 
do ? I answer, " much every way." 

The first and great thing to be determined, is this, — Jlre the 
manifestations we witness^ made by spirits who have left this 
sphere of mortality I 

This is, after all, the question yet to be settled. The mass 
of mortals who have become more or less interested in these 
things, are far from being perfectly satisfied on this point. 
They admit that " sounds" are made, that physical bodies are 
moved, names of persons are written on paper, and all these 
things are done without human hands or human power, as far 
as the most rigid scrutiny can determine. The candid, every- 



826 BOOK OF HUMAK NATURE. 

where, all over the country, give it up that they cannot tell 
how these manifestations are made. A thousand conjectures 
do not solve the mystery. The sounds are still heard. How 
are they made '? Has any one of the thousands who have wit- 
nessed these wonders, ever been able to account for them? 
No ! Flimsy and silly solutions enough have been offered to 
be sure, but they have all turned the laugh upon their origina- 
tors, whether giving the credit of these things to the devil or 
to the " od," or to " something" else ! How many, many 
times have sapient editors pretended that the " whole secret" 
had been found out and exposed? And how many, many 
times have unworthy lecturers gulled the gaping multitude 
into the payment of the quarters to hear them " tell how it is 
done ?" And how often havethe disappointed multitude re- 
tired from the lecture room, reflecting upon an old proverb, 
which reads something like this, — " The fool and his money, 
soon parted ?" 

No answer that could possibly be given, as to the age or 
names of persons, living or dead, could prove the sounds to be 
made by spirits. And especially not now, since every body 
has come, all at once, to believe so fully in clairvoyance. For 
it is now believed, not merely that a few persons, of a peculiar 
temperament, can be rendered clairvoyant, in a state of trance^ 
but the wise ones now go much farther, and admit that any- 
body, and every body, may be and probably are clairvoyant, 
while in " a perfectly wakeful state." Nay, more, those clair- 
voyant subjects are the most powerful operators, for they not 
only hallucinate a room full of wide-awake Yankees, but they 
do it so as to cause them to imagine the table around which 
they are sitting, to be moved to and fro, and turned over upon 
the floor. Such are the mighty strides which the science of 
Pathetism has taken, within a year or so past. It is, then, not 
to be overlooked, that the one great fact presented for the 
consideration of mortals is the thing done to arrest attention ? 
Dispose of that. Account for the sounds you hear, on any other 
hypothesis than that they are made by spirits. This is the 
test of all — the first and most important. No matter what 
other questions are answered, or unanswered. If you hear the 
sounds, tell us how they are made. If you cannot, as, indeed, 
we know you cannot, then we hold you there. Write about 
it, talk about it, misrepresent it, slander the medium, as you 
will. Not a word can be uttered about it, pro or con, but shall 
tend to bring the subject into the minds of mortals, which is 
the grand design of the Great liarmonia, that never was and 
never can be frustrated.* 

* " There is an omnipotent, purifying, and fraternizing principle 
permeating and pervading the Katurai'^piritual, and Celestial Depart- 



li 



SPIRITS. 827 

Hence we say, with this great truth before our eyes, we need 
not at present assume anything with regard to the character of 
the communications made to mortals from- the world of spirits. 
And having assumed nothing, we have nothing to prove or dis- 
prove. There may be ten or ten thousand discordant com- 
munications made through every medium in the world. What 
of that '? The first question is not in respect to the character 
of the medium, or the communications made, but it is as to 
whether there be a spiritual world or not. And till this mighty 
question is settled, no " sounds," no " sentence spelled out," no 
" raps" purporting to come from a dog or a donkey, can be 
said to be " unimportant." That which comes from the sprit- 
ual world is of the highest importance to every human being 
who has not yet passed into that world. 

When Lavere assumes the discovery of a new planet, philo- 
sophers do not first commence a discussion as to what kind of^ 
beings inhabit that planet. They first inquire whether there 
be such a new world in existence, and when they find it so, 
they know, as a matter of course, that it must hold its appro- 
priate place, and be governed by the laws which appertain to 
all other similar bodies in the universe of God. 
• It seems to me that there is goodness enough in the great 
truth now in the process of demonstration, to prevent discord 
among mortals. So it has impressed me. The more I learn 
of the next sphere, the less I am disposed to dispute with 
mortals about it. Why dispute about that which neither you, 
nor 1, nor any other mortal, fully understand 1 

And the attempts often made by different writers, to account 
for the discordant manifestations-from the world of spirits, have 
excited in me a feeling of charity. Such is my love for the 
spiritual, that whenever I witness any effort, however feeble, 
to free this subject from all embarrassment, I can but bless the 
mortal who makes the effort, however short he may fall of his 
object. The spiritual world makes efforts that do not seem to 
be successful, for the time. And a similar remark might 
(reverently) be made of the Deity. Certainly the old theology 
teaches that God makes efforts, daily, to save his children from 
hell, but he is not able to do it ! Does he not make efforts to 
bring about maturity in the vegetable kingdom, which fail ? 
And who brings the animal kingdom into life ] And when 
animals die before they are matured, whose failure is if? 

ments of God's Universal Temple — a principle which unites atoms and 
plants into one stupendous system; wliich unfolds spirits and angels 
as immortal flowers, which endows the Divine Mind, with eternal 
Power and Loveliness ; and which is the divinely-inherited Treasure 
of the human soul, and this principle is called the Great Harmonia.'''' — 
A. J, Davis. 



828 BOOK OF HUMAN NATUKE. 

Surely those who have been accustomed to speak of God as 
having failed in carrying out his original design in man's crea- 
tion, will not be offended at the idea of failure when speaking 
of human beings, nor should they object to similar language 
when speaking of Nature's own efforts, not excepting those 
by the spiritual world. 

If we contemplate Nature as comprehended in three king- 
doms or spheres, mineral, vegetable, and animal, and notice 
the corresponding analogies between them all, it may be easy 
to see similar analogies in what appertains to the spheres above, 
and the reasons why manifestations from the spiritual world, 
though discordant, often when compared with themselves, yet, 
when compared with the universe and the ^reat whole of 
Nature, they are in perfect and beautiful harmony : — 

" All nature is but art, unknown to thee ; 
All chance, direction which tbou canst not see, 
All discord, harmony not understood ; 
All partial evil, universal good." 

Hence, it is, I find no fault either with the " spirits," what- 
ever their grade may be, nor with the mediums through which 
they make these manifestations ; none at all. I blame no one, 
I doubt not but each one has done the best, perhaps, that he 
could, or that could be done under all circumstances of the case. 
Of many who have consented to serve as mediums, I know 
much good might be said. They are all, as far as T am pre- 
pared to testify, honest and truthful. Some of them have 
suffered severe trials, and undeserved obloquy enough to 
entitle them to the lasting gratitude of men and angels. Their 
integrity has, indeed, been proved by the patience with which 
they have borne the slanders heaped upon them. What fraud, 
what deception, what crimes have not been charged upon those 
who have acted as mediums or upon their friends ? Crimes, 
the whole of which may be summed up in one word, " decep- 
tion." m^ DECEPTION, more CRUEL than the grave! 
Deception, connected with death and the realities of eter- 
nity. ..^^ A horrible crime against heaven and earth, of which 
I would no more be guilty than I would of murder. That 
multitudes are deceived in relation to what are called spiritual 
manifestations, I know, very well — ludicrously, wofully, self- 
deceived. They are deceived in supposing that the phenomena 
known under this term, are produced by human beings. But 
the great deception, whence this originates, lies deeper still. It 
is constituted hy a discordant spirit in themselves. The man 
who, in the elements of his nature, is thus discordant, loves 
error. He is self-deceived in supposing that he can falsify 
without being himself false at heart ; that he can ever deceive, 
without being himself deceived. 



SPIRITS. 829 

It is said of " a greater than John the Baptist," that he did 
not " contradict ;" he " endured the contradiction of sinners 
against himself;" from which two inferences may be drawn : 

1. That it is characteristic of ^^ sinners'*^ to " contradict." And, 

2. That unimpeachable integrity disposes to the endurance of 
slanders, and not to their " contradiction." We are told that 
Jesus did not attempt to " contradict" either the erroneous 
views that his enemies entertained of him, or the many 
slanders they uttered and published against him. He was 
" meek and lowly ;" and as the " lamb is dumb before his 
shearer, so he opened not his mouth." 

And shall we be forbidden to attempt the imitation of an 
example so divine 1 Is it because I am so great a " knave," 
that 1 must not be permitted to bear as patiently as I may, the 
"evil" that is spoken of me falsely ? 

In this respect, then, let all who have acted as mediums for 
these spiritual manifestations imitate the conduct of One who 
is above. Suffer in silence to be slandered, misrepresented, 
misunderstood. Never consent to self-degradation, do not 
surrender your own judgment, ask for assistance of Wisdom 
that is from above. 

A debt of gratitude is due to a large class of excellent men 
and women, of unimpeachable integrity, scattered over the 
country, who have assisted in this investigation by consenting 
to act as mediums. But for these, what could we have 
learned about these things 1 But for their patience, and for- 
bearance, and perseverance, how many, very many of us 
might have been less informed than now, in respect to the 
laws that appertain to the spiritual world. That some, if not 
all, may have been deceived in respect to the grade of spirits 
who have possessed them, is possible — perhaps certain. This 
should entitle them to our sympathies, not to censure nor un- 
kind words. 

And of the pioneers in this investigation, who, uncommit- 
ted to sectarianism, have persevered in the search after truth, 
against any amount of opposition from bigots of all parties, the 
world, the Race itself, deserves well of them. With all their 
errors, with all their fanaticism even, I can appreciate the 
good that the free and unrestricted investigation of this sub- 
ject must accomplish in the end. Free from" the control of 
sectarian credulity on the one hand, and skeptical dogmatism 
on the other, the mind is never so well prepared for the inves- 
tigation of whatever most appertains to the welfare of the 
Race. 

What, then, is the use of these things 1 What is the use of 
the spiritual world, supposing there be one 1 What is the use 
of free discussion 1 What is the use of knowing any thing at 



S30 BOOK OF HUMAN NATUEE. 

all about it ? Truths, momentous truths, appertaining to man's 
nature, have been developed and confirmed by these mani- 
festations. 

A human deceiver, influenced by a spirit precisely like him- 
self, conceives, in falsehood, the design of falsifying- to spirits. 
He deceives in his questions, whether put by himself or ano- 
ther ; and as sure as there be a principle of Eternal Justice 
above, so certain it is that the answer must correspond and 
prove the legitimate fruit of the seed which that deceiver 
himself has sown. 

And will not the knowledge of these laws do good ? Will 
it not assist in the great work of progression? Hence, if 
these pages may assist mortals to a better understanding of 
the doctrme of degrees, the doctrine of correspondences, the 
proximity of the external and lower spiritual, then we may 
perceive what good these things will do. 

What I have written, has been from no motive that I should 
not be willing to have displayed upon the broad heavens, at 
noon-day, and known to the whole universe of God. Good- 
ness, Justice, and Truth. This has been my motto, if I 
know my own heart. 

A friend made the following remark to me : That the recent 
spiritual manifestations had very much enlarged his views of 
man's capacity, both for good and for evil ; and that while 
he does not, and never did, believe in total depravity, he 
had for a long time been most deeply impressed with a sense 
of the extremes of evil, in which men are often found. And 
of course, these must be seen the more distinctly from con- 
trast. As we see goodness very high above, so it often 
makes more manifest the degrees in which others fall below it, 
and hence we say they are evil. And then again, as we be- 
come susceptible of spiritual influences, we must feel the an- 
tagonisms which arise from contrasts with those who are in 
the spheres below. 

It may be for these reasons that " mediums," with others, 
have suffered so much from calumny. Conscious of mean- 
ing well — of wishing evil to no human being — loving Good- 
ness and Truth as we love life and a happy immortality — 
knowing that we have not designedly uttered one untruthful or 
unkind word of any beingin the whole universe of God — it is not 
perhaps, mysterious that many of the slanders uttered about 
us and our innocent friends, should be so very malignant. 
And whether their depravity would be mitigated at all if we 
were to go into a detail of all the circumstances involved in 
some of these calumnies, is a question we could not stop 
here to test."^ Suffice it to say, I have had heavy burdens to 

* *' The miserable delusions of A. J. Davis and La Eoy Sunder- 



INSPIRATION-. 881 

bear, severe duties to perform, formidable difficulties to con- 
tend with, in this investigation. But under all the circum- 
stances, I have done the best I could, and regret nothing I 
have said or suffered in this cause. My labors are now be- 
fore the inhabitants of the two spheres, whom I have hon- 
estly, and with undeviating fidelity, endeavored faithfully to 
serve. With them I leave the verdict. 

Thus far, to me, these manifestations have been fraught 
with Instruction, Admonition, and Hope, and seem des- 
tined to have a threefold and most important use in the great 
work of Human Progression : 

1. To produce conviction where it is most wanted, as to the 
great /acif^ of a spiritual world. 

As it becomes manifest that the less spiritual spirits have 
access and control over men's lower or external senses, so we 
may infer that the more spiritual or higher spirits, may have 
access to man's highest or inmost senses. If man is influ- 
enced externally by the low spirits who are near to his exter- 
nals, he should be thus taught to exercise his inmost senses 
for the reception of Goodness and Truth from angels that are 
above, and so far above, that they do not come into the exter- 
nal world at all. 

2. Another important use subserved by these things is — 
they rebuke the prominent error of the popular Theology, 
and show that the other world is a continuafkn of this life. 
That death makes no change in man's moral character, no 
more than the decay of the plant in the Autumn makes a 
change in the nature of the seed, which is thus developed and 
separated from the outer form in which it was matured. 

3. They tend to develop Manhood, by forcing upon mortals 
the necessity of seeking some higher authority than tradition, 
or apocryphal spirits, for what they (mortals) believe or do. 
In this manner mortals are made to originate thoughts for 
themselves, a " consummation," certainly, " most devoutly to 
be wished." 

laispiratioai* 

248. We are now prepared, better than we could have been 
but for what has gone before, to consider the subject of inspi- 
ration ; not the old theological notion of plenary or infallible 
inspiration, which robs man of his manhood ; but, that inflow- 
ing of Truth from the higher spheres which extends to one and 
all of the human race. 

It is a question, I believe, to which strict justice has 

land, led on John Grieve and his wife, to tlie murder of their 
Bouls and bodies.— i)OSi!o;iPos^, of Feb. 18th, 1851. 



832 BOOK OF HUMAN NATURE. 

scarcely yet been rendered, as to when, or in what state one 
is the best fitted either for receiving or communicating truth. 
There is a manifest difference, certainly, between giving 
and receiving. A man can never give what he has not re- 
ceived. A stream cannot rise above the fountain. But one 
may ''^receive from above." This is progression, always. 
We ascend by receiving from the higher, by taking hold of 
that which is above our own sphere. 

It may be stated, I think, as a philosophical axiom, that 
the best state, as a general rule, always, for receiving inspi- 
ration, or communicating what has been received, is — the 
healthy, harmonious, normal condition of the soul and body. 
Special purposes may be served, things be learned incidental- 
ly, we know, in a dream — in a state of clairvoyance or trance. 
But that condition most favorable for receiving and appreciat- 
ing tiie highest truths, must be one in which all the faculties 
of Manhood* are in their normal state, and exercised to their 
fullest capacity ; or rather, when each is exercised in harmo- 
ny with the whole organism, and the wants of the occasion. 
You are not a full, perfect, harmonious, normal Man, with 
your external senses closed up. After death, these senses 
will not appertain to your form, but in this sphere, your eyes, 
your ears, your sense of feeling, and siglit, and taste, and 
smell, all belong to your manhood, and cannot be dispensed 
with, if you woild fulfil the sphere of a man. 

It is a great error to suppose that one is a whole man, in the 
full activity of manhood, whose eyes are shut up and not under 
nis own control; that a '""man is a man" who has no control 
over his own feelings, nor his own limbs. I speak not here 
against the use of Clairvoyance, nor against a state of trance, 
no more than I do against a state of dreaming, or sleep. Or- 
dinary sleep is good at the proper time ; but it is not man's 
best condition, not the state when he displays the powers of 
his manhood. And so of a state when one part is asleep, 
and another faculty awake. This is more discordant still. 
One faculty may be more active in a state of trance, (115) 
than that faculty perhaps could be in any other condition. But 
then that is not the best state on the whole for any man, where 
one faculty is abnormally excited. The excitement, the inspi- 
ration, should be harmonious in all the faculties throughout the 
whole organism alike. 

It seems to me *that many persons have been hindered in 
their inspiration, and have often failed of their object by seek- 
ing for it in or through an abnormal, or unusual condition of 
the body or mind. This is an error. Open both your eyes ; 

* This term includes both sexes. 



INSPIRATION. 833 

expand all your spiritual senses ; throw wide open the doors 
of your manhood to the reception of Goodness and Truth, 
which are always readv to flow down into you from above. 
As your external body is surrounded with an external atmos- 
phere which has in it the vital principle received into your 
living organization, so is your inmost Form surrounded with 
a spiritual atmosphere, which you are constantly inhaling, and 
with which you are more or less inspired. You know how in- 
vigorating it is for your external body to go out into thq pure 
air, expand your chest and draw into your lungs deep draughts 
of the life-giving element. For th.e want of this, how many 
become consumptive, and thus failing of animal inspiration, 
waste away and die. 

See, then, what man needs for his soul, a healthy invigora- 
ting atmosphere. Not shut up in a close room ; not smothered 
with bandages over his mouth ; not bound with sectarian or 
traditional cords. His spiritual faculties must not be tied up. 
He must go abroad in heaven's pure, free air. He must take 
long, and deep inhalations, and often in this manner, his spirit- 
ual breathing apparatus becomes enlarged, healthy and strong. 
He becomes not a nondescript, not a monster, nor a spirit, but 
a wian, a perfect, full grown, harmoniously developed man, " the. 
noblest work of God." A Form symmetrical and beautiful 
beyond the power of language to describe. It was the full 
manhood of Jesus that made him so beautiful and lovely. Nor 
can there be a point of true ambition higher than this. No 
honors of office, no glories of wealth and title ; no agrandize- 
ment from the use of the sword ; no credit from ancestry or 
birth ; no elevation from earthly wealth ; no possessions of silver 
or gold can begin to compare with the dignity and real glory 
that envelops the full grown man. Hence it is, that the race 
look with feelings of awe and worship upon Jesus of the East. 
His soul expanded to the full stature of a man, in whom good- 
ness itself was so nearly personified, that no marvel mortals 
oflfer him divine worship, and finding theptiselves so far below, 
they imagine him as far above. 

Here tlien we find, " our inspiration is our theme." Here 
is an object, which develops manhood even in its contempla- 
tion. And what else is worthy of inspiration? What chan- 
nels so attractive of those higher truths, as an evenly developed, 
harmonious man 1 A man who has out-grown the imperfec- 
tions of childhood, who has advanced from the imbecilities of 
youth, who has expanded his entire organism by goodness, pro- 
gressing from one degree of truth to another, he becomes a re- 
ceiver of that lofty inspiration which is appropriate to his ca- 
pacity as a full grown man. 

It must be born in mind that the term now under notice h&B 



834 BOOK OF HUMAN NATURE. 

been perverted and misused by sectarianism. In the old theo- 
lofyy it partook of the exclusive ; it was confined to the elect ; 
the chosen few. So in that theology God was exclusive, 
bigoted, and limited in his munificence. The greater part 
even of his intelligent creation, had no share in his inspiration. 
That was confined to the old and new testament writers, and 
seems to have been not of a very definable kind even. This 
is not the degree of inspiration of which I speak. God is 
not only all, but in all. He develops all, feeds all, gives all 
the Receptivity, and fills them with his love, good measure, 
" pressed down and shaken together." As all men have the 
capacity for receiving, so the Divine flows into all ; so he de- 
velops himself in all. He is the Divine Inmost, and by cen- 
trifugal motions he expands the capacity ; — as he flows in by 
the centripetal, and thufe man, by exhaling and inhaling, grows, 
advances, progresses, in the image of the Divine. This true 
inspiration, therefore, must be considered as confined to no sect, 
to no creed, to no party or theology. As God is everywhere, 
as his breath, his spirit, prevades the universe, so it must be 
always present, always inflowing to allmortals whose spiritual 
organisms are advanced sufficiently for receiving him. This 
is no miraculous gift, and bestowed only now and then on some 
recluse, some hermit, some self-constituted priest. As the at- 
mosphere is common to all animal life, and to be received and 
consumed according to the capacity of the living organism, 
so it is in the spiritual world, in which the spirit lives, even 
when clothed with the outer Form. So rich is the Divine 
Father in his goodness, so bountiful in the arrangements of his 
providence, there is enough for all, enough for each, and enough 
for ever more. 

It will be seen, then, that this term does not necessarily sig- 
nify infallibility ; nor necessarily superior wisdom even. And 
from the views already advanced (61, 64, 186 — 200) it is easy 
to perceive in what sense it may be truly said that one is in- 
spired who has spoken or acted under spiritual influences that 
were very low. (197.) The highest authority is Superior 
Wisdom, Goodness, Justice. And a low capacity and an in- 
ferior organ of inspiration may bring about such developments 
as to which this term may be appropriately applied. 

In a similar manner we are accustomed to speak of revela- 
tions either from the scientific or the spiritual worlds. 

A revelation is simply the development or making known 
what was before concealed and not known. We may call it 
" divine," " philosophical," " natural," " inspired," or " spirit- 
ual." The use of either of these terms d es not alter the in- 
trinsic character of what is said to be revealed. We know, 
indeed, that in certain theological circles the term " revelation" 



INSPIRATION. 835 

has been restricted to those writings, collected into the Bible, 
but-with how much propriety we need not now stop to inquire. 
All will admit, that we piay call that a "revelation" which is 
made known to us, and especially when facts said to be reveal- 
ed prove not only to be true, but of the utmost importance to 
human welfare.- And in passing- we may remark, that but few 
of the writers of the Bible called what they wrote a revelation, 
and fewer still of the multitudes of authors who have written 
upon matters connected with the physical and spiritual uni- 
verse within the last two thousand years, have called their la- 
bors by this name. 

In speaking then of revelations, we wish to know, first, as 
to what truth has been. revealed, if any; and secondly, as to 
the process by which it was developed. In what respects 
does It differ from the ordinary methods of acquiring and com- 
municating knowledge ? All classes will admit that, so far as 
any utterances are truthful, they should be received ; and a 
portion of minds will admit, before they know what has been 
uttered, that it must, or should be received, provided the 
knowledge was obtained'in a peculiar way — as it is supposed 
men were anciently — infallibly inspired to reveal the will of 
God. Well, now, to facilitate our investigations, suppose we 
mention a few particulars in which we may, perhaps agree : 

1. That whenever Truth is uttered, it must be from its own 
inherent inspiration. No matter who is the medium of its 
communication, nor when nor where it is spoken. 

2. The good designed or done in the utterance of truth will 
depend, not only on the essential nature of truth itself, but on 
its justness, on its love, on its tendency to develop the animal 
and spiritual nature in man, according to the design of the In- 
finite. (9, 34.) Whatever may be comprehended in that de- 
sign, we may agree, that in so far as the utterance of any truth 
tends to its development, it must be good, and according to 
the Infinite Wisdom. 

3. That the difference in opinion among men as to goodness 
and truth, arises chiefly from the different views they take of 
the Divine Being, and his design in the development of man. 
For in so far as we agree that truth subserves God's designs, 
we admit that it ought to be uttered ; or, when the utterance 
falls short of that design, it is false, and not to be received. 

4. It is manifest, therefore, that our first object should be to 
know and understand what the Infinite design was in the de- 
velopment of man. When the mind is once at rest on this 
foundation, then we can the better agree as to what means 
the highest wisdom must use for its accomplishment. 

Those communications, therefore, through whatever chan- 
nel they may chance to come, must be the highest revelations, 



BOOK OF HUMAN KATURE. ' 

which give us that knowledge which is the most calculated to 
develop our nature, in harmony, according to the Infinite De- 
sign. It may be given through Svvedenborg, Mr. Davis, or 
any other person. Truth, when once revealed, speaks for it- 
self to all who are sufficiently developed for its comprehension. 
We observe, then : 

1. That as the Infinite is the Father of all ; and is Himself, 
Goodness, Justice, Truth, so he develops himself in all, 
through descending universes, worlds, kingdoms, spheres, forms, 
and the corresponding degrees of Goodness and Truth of each 
mortal and spirit, determines the receptivity of each, of spirit- 
ual influx. The inspiration, therefore, flows into the appro- 
priate senses ; the spiritual, or highest into the higher faculties, 
and the lower, into those faculties which are external. Hence 
all should aspire to receive through the higher faculties, and 
from those spheres of Goodness and Truth that are above 
ourselves. 

But no mortal can rationally determine whether he be in- 
spired from above or below himself, who yields up his own 
judgment, his individual sovereignty. Because to do so, is to 
shut up the higher faculties of our nature, through which alone, 
the higher degrees of inspiration can be received. Submitting 
to these lower forms of inspiration has constituted the principle 
fanaticisms that have prevailed in preceding ages of the 
world. 

2. The beginning of nature's developments is that part of 
her work to which we apply the terms angular and imperfect. 
(31, 32, 34.) Hence, if the laws of inspiration correspond 
with all the other laws of the universe, as they should and 
must, if God be the author of all, then we can see in what 
sense inspiration may be said to be low even, and imperfect. 
Thus it leaves, as it were, a work for Hope, in its anticipations 
of a progression in theological or spiritual knowledge as we 
advance in all things else. 

3. All cases of spiritual inspiration, come from the proximity 
of spirits and mortals who are congenial, in one, or each of their 
elements ; that is, they are congenial in some one faculty ; and 
hy gratifying that faculty the spirit flows in and gains posses- 
sion of the medium. Hence we conclude that the inspiration 
which is low, angular, imperfect, dark, false, or evil, comes 
through mediums unevenly balanced. The high, truthful, per- 
fect, and good, through mediums that are harmonious, and 
from associations that are concordant and good. 

4. As the human is constituted for receiving the spiritual 
influx from without, which is that susceptibility, operated 
upon for its own development, so this susceptibility is liable to 
be pervei^ted d,nd abused, like every other higher faculty of 



INSPIRATION. 337 

man^s nature. The higher faculties of the human mind are 
liable to the greatest abuse, or, as the greatest evils are perpe- 
tuated by the most noble faculties of the soul, so those develop- 
ments of Nature which indicate the purity of the human race, 
and the proximity of the two spheres, are liable to the greatest 
perversion," as they are in all cases of delusion and fanaticism, 
where mortals imagine themselves inspired by some distin- 
guished personage in the spiritual world ; when they are 
merely possessed by a spirit who is itself (whether male or 
female the mortal cannot know,) so fanatical that he does not 
even know who he is, or that he (the spirit,) is not the indivi- 
dual he is thought to be. (243.) Hence, if there should be 
different forms o^ fanaticism and delusion noticed in many lo- 
calities where spiritual manifestations take place, those who 
understand the doctrine of correspondences will not under- 
value the SPIRITUAL, on this account. We shall hear of com- 
munications from " Prophets," " Apostles," " Kings," and 
*• Statesmen ;" and of diverse " Revelations," said to be made 
by them ; we shall hear of human beings, said to be " Magnet- 
ized," inspired or possessed by such and such spirits. But the 
true and the good will know and understand how easy it is for 
some people to become " magnetized" by their own ideas, and 
to take for " Revelations" the fancies of their own brains. 
All these things, in the Great Design of the Infinite, have an 
important use, and will do good by making known the laws 
thai appertain to the spiritual world, and what ignorant mortals 
may and will receive from it if they know no better. 

5. We need more evidence and greater guarantees for ad- 
mitting the ex-parte testimony of apocryphal spirits, than we 
do for believing human testimony. If a spirit tell me any 
thing which I know to be true without such testimony, I may 
then believe what that spirit says about other things of which I 
know nothing, provided only, that what is said agree with the 
doctrine of universal correspondences. And to know what 
agrees with the whole universe, the whole Heavens, and the 
doctrine of universal correspondences, we must stand as near 
the centre of the great circle as possible. (34, 35.) We must 
not be shut up within the angular system of any sect or party ; 
we must be committed to no man, but free to follow (6, 12, 
13, 28,) wherever we may be attracted by Goodness and 
Truth. 

We may thus perceive how far we are to admit the testi- 
mony of those who call themselves " spiritual clairvoy- 
ants," and who are supposed to be exalted into the spirit 
sphere, so as to see and converse with spirits. Whether they 
do, really, see the spirits whom they think thejr do, must be 
determined by other things besides their own testimony. 
15 



838 BOOK OF HUMAN NATURE. 

6. It hence appears, how immensely important it is, that 
we should become acquainted, not merely with the laws of 
mind, but also with those higher laws which appertain to the 
spiritual world. If that world be constantly injfiowing, more 
or less, into this world, as we are taught by the analogy of 
reason, then we may perceive, also, something as to what is 
prerequisite for our receiving such influxes from the spiritual 
world, as are always good and true, in the highest sense of 
these terms. If the parties who give and receive be in cor- 
responding states of discord, of course that which is com- 
municated from the spirit sphere must be more or less imper- 
fect — a mixture of good and evil. 

A knowledge of the sphere inhabited, or filled by the spirits, 
is as necessary as a knowledge of the character of human 
beings, before we receive their testimony on any subject of 
which we know but little, or nothing, except what we learn 
from such testimony. And we must remember what is meant 
by spheres. A spirit may be in one sphere, or degree, in 
respect to goodness, and in another . sphere with respect to 
knowledge.- There are endless varieties of degrees, both of 
Goodness and of Truth. A knowledge of one thing does not 
imply a knowledge of all. And goodness, manifested in the 
various domestic relations of father, mother, &c., does not, 
necessarily, imply universal goodness. 

This is in perfect correspondence with the Great Harmo- 
nia, or the nature and constitution of things ; the spheres 
above are inhabited by spirits who have left human bodies, 
and are developed from those below. Hence, the states or 
conditions of spirits, out of human bodies, are precisely 
what they have been made in or by the Human World 
which they haye left. 



d 



i 



ASPIRATION". 389 



INTELLECTUAL CULTURE. 

EDUCATION, DISCIPLINE, IMPROYEMENT. 



AspiratloM. 

249. How, then, shall our hig^her nature be developed ? 
What are the njost appropriate means for the cultivation ot 
my own spirit? These are questions which press with nnore 
than ordinary power upon all minds who- begin to- have just 
conceptions of their own destiny. As the lungs aspire for 
the air, when born into this sphere, where animal life sub- 
sists upon air, and as the stomach craves its appropriate ali- 
ment, in perfect correspondence with its condition, so does 
the human spirit aspire, and seek for its appropriate nourish- 
ment, without which it suffers, and is prevented in its upward 
coarse. Hovv is it that we should be so slow in perceiving 
this ? How is it that the mind desires knowledge at all 1 We 
seek for spiritual food from the very instincts of our inmost 
nature, corresponding with the methods by which the recur- 
ring wants of our animal nature are satisfied. It is not from 
observation that the new-born infant asks for its aliment. 
That hidden principle of intelligence which has given life and 
form to his body, speaks through his infantile cry in a lan- 
guage which is well understood by those to whom it is ad- 
dressed. The infant does not know what his appropriate food 
is or should be. He does not know where it is to be found, 
nor how. All this belongs to those who are above him. The 
infant merely receives what is given. If it be the food which 
Nature has prepared for him, he is nourished and grows ac- 
cordingly. But if it be artificial, it is not so well for him ; 
and worst of all, should it prove to be deleterious or poisonous. 

So it is in respect to the matured mind. We no sooner per- 
ceive the first manifestations of intellect, than, in those mani- 
festations we may notice the appetite for mental nourishment. 
How soon this is sought in play, in books, and whatever gra 
tifies the love of mirth. With what avidity the child listens 



840 BOOK OF HUMAN NATURE. 

to the stories that are told him ; with what application he reads 
about the pictures that address his mind through the sense of 
sight. Now, you can no more destroy that mental appetite in 
the child than you can annihilate his desire for physical food. 
It is from the inherent aspirations of his intellectual, his im- 
mortal nature. It must breathe. Its life must be sustained ; 
it will live on something. Give it appropriate aliment, and 
all is well. The intellect is thus expanded, and grows up to 
manhood. Appropriate aliment, appropriate exercise or dis- 
cipline, and the mind grows correspondingly with the body. It 
is healthy and happy, and increases as Jesus did, " in wis- 
dom and in stature, and in favor with God and man." 

Or, if instead of this, you give poison — if, from ignorance 
or destitution, you give that for food which is neither adapt- 
ed to the age of the child, nor perhaps fit for food at all, 
disease and mischief follow. And thus it is, precisely with 
the human mind. It grows by discipline ; it is developed by 
knowledge. It spontaneously seeks and pra,ys for its " dai- 
ly bread," and when, from some fatal or fortuitous cause, 
that bread is withheld by those above, who should bestow 
it, we see the consequences in mental dwarfs, ignorance, 
and intellectual imbecility. 

The living organism inspires the common air for its life ; 
the life element is certainly in the air we breathe, or it would 
not support life ; and hence, for the best of reasons, it is 
called the " breath of lives.'"* And this may have respect not 
merely to animal life, but to the internal form also. There is 
an inmost life, an inmost organism, a spiritual Form, moving 
all the parts that correspond to the outer form — and this inner 
form, as we have seen, having or being life from the Divine 
Life, it must subsist upon a spiritual atmosphere. The intel- 
lect is composed of senses, adapted to the Intellectual world, 
in exact correspondence with the external senses, which are 
adapted to this external world. And upon the susceptibilities 
and capacities of this internal organism do all man's mental or 
spiritual wants depend. 

Tlie Model Man. 

250. Where is he 1 Oh, that we could see him ! The 
Model Woman? The Model Child? The Model Husband 1 
The Model Wife? Brother? Sister? Citizen? Neighbor? 
Friend ? Where shall we find the Model — our highest Ideal 
of all that is beautiful, all that is symmetrical, all that is truth- 
ful, just, and good ? All that is gentle, and kind, and harmo- 
nious in all things, internal and external ? Where there are 

* Gen. 2 : 7. 



THE MODEL MAK. 841 

no angles, no discords, nothing- wanting ; but where there is 
Perfection in all the motions, all the circles— each feature, 
each desire, each motion ! 

Now, we have seen, that the answer of no two individuals, 
perhaps, to this query, would be precisely the same, (125) be- 
cause Self-Love^ the first element of the human soul, may not 
be developed in any two persons precisely alike, (79.) As 
soon as we come to know, therefore, that there is something 
above us we have not yet attained, the rule is to aspire after 
it. Aim for the higher life, the higher truth, the higher know- 
ledge, the higher good. 

In the lower forms of Nature we do not find many models. 
True, she gives us great oseans, long rivers, high mountains, 
huge rocks, frightful precipices, dark caverns, magnificent 
trees, and burning volcanoes. And, then, man's intelligence 
applies the hand of art, and we have beautiful fields of waving 
grain, the cultured trees of golden fruit, upon the model farm. 
And in works of art we are referred to the model hoase, the 
model school, the model writer — because in these cases we 
are shown the highest Ideal, the perfection in the form and 
use of things. Now, if we suppose that Nature furnishes 
models in all her spheres, and that they must ascend in de- 
grees of perfection and harmony, by the laws of eternal pro- 
gression, then we may see whence originate man's aspirations 
for the higher good. If they originate from the inmost laws 
of his nature, we infer that they may be gratified, for the 
same reasons that we might infer that there is an atmosphere 
to be breathed, because man has a vital system most singular- 
ly adapted to this very kind of inspiration. 

One of the crowning beauties of Nature, as a whole, is in 
the united harmony between so many different individualities. 
And in this endless variety we must always find a vast dif- 
ference indeed in the ideal of each selfhood. At one time we 
inquire for the model man, and we are referred to Moses. At 
another, to Confucius. At another, to Pythagoras. At ano- 
ther, to Mohammed. Wesley and Swedenborg were model 
men. And so was George Washington. But in what sense 
each of these personages was, or is still considered as a mo- 
del, we must take into this account, in order to comprehend 
the true philosophy after which we are searching. 

It is asked, where we shall go to learn ? The answer is, 
to those accessible sources or Teachers who are the most com- 
petent to give us reliable information. 

In the description of an efiicient Christian teacher, St. Paul 
mentions this as one important characteristic. He should not 
be one who is newly come to the faith, a youth of little expe- 
rience. He must be matured with age. In the nature of 



842 BOOK OF HUMAN NATURE. 

things, a child cannot have the capacity for receiving or giv- 
ing, vv^hich a man is supposed to possess. Other things, there- 
fore, being equal, it is manifest that one who has the experi- 
ence and maturity of manhood, must be in capacity far above 
the abilities peculiar to childhood and youth. 

All of Nature's manifestations, or which is the same, all of 
God's works, harmonize, when considered as a whole. That 
is, from childhood, we see childish manifestations, and from 
riper years, the intellectual phenortiena correspond. '" With 
the aged there is wisdom." The Wisdom element is the last 
in order, so to speak, and the highest in the divine. Hence 
it is the last to be developed in man. The doctrine of Pro- 
gression implies this. That which is highest, is not first. So 
it is said, " That was not first which is spiritual, but that 
which is natural, (or external,) and afterwards that which is 
spiritual." 

Isolated cases there may be, where wisdom is not found de- 
veloped with old age. But we refer to the general develop- 
ments of Nature, to the great system of manhood. This sys- 
tem does not authorize us to place the greenness of youth be- 
fore the ripeness and maturity of age. 

Let these suggestions be applied to " mediums," and per- 
sons who assume to explain to us Nature's mysteries. True, 
we admit that the teachings of each and all must be judged of 
according to their intrinsic merits ; that is, if we can get at 
their intrinsic merits without any extrinsic assistance. But 
if we cannot, what then 1 A child may have intuitive know- 
ledge, as in the case of Zerah Colburn and Henry T. SafFord. 
But these prodigies manifest intuitive knowledge, not of a 
whole world or universe of worlds, but only of one depart- 
ment of science merely. Ole Bull excels in music ; young 
SafFord, in mathematics. George Combe, the philosopher, 
excels in mental science, but in mathematics I have heard him 
confess himself "an idiot." 

It is often said that all excel in some faculties ; and in 
others, all are more or less deficient. We seldom find a man, 
whose phrenological organs are balanced to perfection. In ^ 
one respect, then, it may be true of the aged what we have 
said of youth. Mr. Combe is a novice in mathematics. Ole 
Bull may be a novice in physiology — and novices in pneuma- 
tology are quite common, even among those who are matured 
and well informed in other sciences. These novices might 
never have been known as such, but for the recent develop- 
ments alleged to be from the spiritual world, which have ex- 
cited them in such a manner as has caused them to show their 
ignorance. It is not uncommon for persons who are con- 

cious of excelling in one department of science, to take it 



THE MODEL MAN. 343 

for granted that they are adepts in other departments also. 
Bat they have only to speak, or write, in opposition to what 
they do not comprehend, and instead of " exposing" any real 
fraud, they simply expose their own want of knowledge. So 
true it is, " The tongue of the wise useth knowledge aright ; 
but the mouth of fools poureth out (margin, bubbleth) foolish- 
ness."* 

Men are apt to receive error for truth whenever truth is 
mixed with error in those models to whom they look for infor- 
mation. There are many good things taught by a certain 
man, it may be, on one subject with which he seems to be fa- 
miliar. And perceiving these good things, we take it for 
granted that all that that man says on all other subjects must 
be true also. But this does not follow. There are many 
truths in the Bible. And the love which many have for those 
truths induces them to receive other things affirmed in the 
Bible which are not true. If that book was written by human 
beings, it must of course partake of some of the characteris- 
tics of finite mediums, through which the truths flowed which 
are contained in it. We naturally infer when we find men 
yielding to the Bible that worship which belongs alone to God, 
that they are not in perfect harmony with the Infinite. They 
are unwilling to have that book criticised. They become ex- 
cited with a combative spirit whenever an attempt is made to 
distinguish between the truths which it contains and the mis- 
takes committed by the mortals through whom those truths 
were communicated. And thus we find it also in respect to 
those teachers whom mortals have been accustomed to look 
up to as '' divinely illuminated" in such a sense as to render 
them infallible.! 

* Prov. 15:2. 

t The following is the testimony which Swedenborg lias borne of ' 
himself: 

" That the things I learned in representations, visions, and from 
discourses with spirits and angels, are from the Lord alone. Thus 
have I been instructed, consequently by no spirit, nor by any angel, 
but by the Lord alone, from whom is all truth and good ; yea, when 
spirits wished to instruct me concerning various things, there was 
scarcely anything but what was false; wherefore I was prohibited 
from believing anything that they spoke, nor was I permitted to infer 
any such thing as was proper to them." — Spiritual Diary^ 1647. 

" I have had speech with spirits and angels, now for many years : 
neither has any spirit dared, nor any angel wished, to tell me anything^ 
still less to instruct me concei-niug things in the Word, or concerning 
any doctrine from the word, but the Lord alou^'has taught me." — 
D. P. 135. 

And thus he often speaks of his having been "taught by the Lord 
alone ;" but he says it was " immediately through his word." 
From this we understand that the human writings, comprising 



844 BOOK OF HUMAN NATURE. 

The more truth any one is the medium of communicating^, 
the more willing he and his friends should be to have that 
truth examined and sifted from all error. The greater the as- 
sumptions put forth in respect to Clairvoyance, or to infallible 
or plenary illumination or inspiration, the greater the liability 
to criticism. It is enough for us to know that the model is a 
human being. He cannot then be infallible. No mortal can 
be assisted or made to comprehend everything. Hence, to 
claim for him more than the facts in his case will warrant, will 
hinder the good that he himself designed. We should esti- 
mate every man, not merely as he estimates himself, but as 
he is estmiated in the universal heavens. No matter what 
Swedenborg or A. J. Davis may have said about themselves. 
That both of them may have put too high an estimate on their 
non-liability to error, is now, I think, made quite too manifest 
to be doubted by the candid of any party — at least, we may 
say, all those of any party who have become thoroughly ac- 
quainted with the recent " manifestations," supposing that 
they come, as is alleged, from departed spirits. 

It is beginning to be admitted now, more than formerly, that 
Swedenborg was far above most, if not all other men, in his 
intellectual capacities for science in general, and especially in 
the development of his spiritual senses. When he commenced 
"writing, he had advanced to that age which gives to the intel- 
lectual faculties their greatest power, so that, in every point 
of view, he may be considered as superior to all other men 
who have attempted to bring the philosophy of the spiritual 
■within the comprehension of m.ortals. But, was he illuminat- 
ed, taught, kept, and prohibited from all error " by the Lord 
alone," in the sense he himself believed, and as is now affirm- 
ed by many (not all, we are happy to say,) New Churchmen ] 
.This may well, indeed, be doubted, especially if we consider 
that it is pure sectarianism which has invested him with this 
character. He was born and educated in its atmosphere, and 
the old theology became a part of his moral nature from the 
laws of necessity, the same that made him a Swede and not a 
German.* And besides, some of his statements in respect to 

what are called the Bible, stood between Swedenborg and God. The 
Bible was written, transcribed, collected, corrected, arranged, and 

{printed, by human beings from first to hist. It is well known that 
lis followers hold, as an essential article of their creed, "That the 
Scriptures are the only fountain of truth, and the ultimate authority 
in matters of faith." 
The " only fountain of truth ?" A book, written and printed by 



ilyl 
ids, 



human hands, the " only fountain of truth 1 

* It must not be taken for granted that when the author speaks of 
sectarianism, he would be understood as including by this term all 



THE MODEL MAN. 845 

what spirits can or cannot do, can or cannot know, are found 
to be unreliable, if the modern manifestations of which we 
have spoken do really come from spirits.* It has been suffi- 
ciently shown, I think, that certain spirits can and do write in 
their own " peculiar style," a style so peculiar that none but 
spirits could write in it, perhaps. But, nevertheless, Sweden- 
borg was a great and a good man, and having done so much to 
free the sublime truths of nature and nature's God from the 
mists of the old dark and contradictory theology, he becomes 
an object of veneration and love among all who have any 
just conceptions as to what a model man should be. 

Suppose, then, we turn away from all creeds, from all sects, 
from all parties, from all that is dogmatical in skepticism, all 
that is traditional and founded in sectarianism, we look at one, 
whom the largest number of the whole race have united in ad- 
mitting to this sphere in the great circle of human brotherhood. 

What heart can contemplate the picture so aptly drawn in 
the following beautiful words, and not be moved to gratitude : 

" Kevilcd, rejected, and betrayed. 
No curse lie breathed, no plaint he made, 
But when in Death's dark pang, lie sighed, 
Prayed for his murderers, and died." 

persons who are nominally connected with such parties. He has the 
pleasure of an acquaintance with many, who though members of sec- 
tarian churches, are measurably free, in despite of the cords with 
which they are bound. 

There may be a sectarian spirit where there is no church We de- 
precate, not merely the form, the outward organization, but the spirit 
of exclusiveness ; that spirit which sets up tests, and requires tlie 
pronunciation of a party Shibboleth, which says, "Stand aside ! I 
am holier than thou." 

Surely, it is desirable that those who condemn sectarianism should 
not themselves become exclusive in spirit. They, above all others, 
should cultivate an enlarged charity, should indulge no spirit of pro- 
scription . 

Nor shoiild we twit our brethren with their former sectarian asso- 
ciations. Are not the laws of eternal progression to bring all out of 
the Egypt of sectarianism ? And suppose some of us may imagine 
we have escaped from the " bondage of corruption," shall we look 
back upon those brothers who are strugghng to follow us, and up- 
braid them because they have not yet progressed so far as we think 
we have ? Rather let us indulge an enlarged benevolence, a noble, 
generous, fraternal fellowship with all. 

* If they were permitted they could write in their own peculiar 
Btyle, which I know from some little experience — but this is not per- 
mitted.— jDiar^/, 557—1748, Jan, 26. 

" It is impossible for the angels to utter one word of human lan- 
guage ; this haB been tried, but they could not, for they cannot utter 
anything but what is altogether in agreement with their affection." — 
A. a. 1685. 



B4:Q BOOK OF HUMAN NATURE. 

But what, we ask, was he, more than any other mortal 1 
He was despised and rejected by his countrymen ; how has he 
come to be a model man to so large a proportion of the race, 
since he left this world. What has made him to so great an 
extent a model man ? What sphere did Jesus fill on tliis 
earth, as to goodness and knowledge"? What contributed 
most to his influence over the minds of men ? In the ex- 
ercise of what faculties was it, that he so much attracted others 
to receive what he taught 1 

It is believed by countless multitudes, at the present time, 
that this same Jesus is now at work in this world ; that is, 
that he is now exerting an influence over the minds of men, 
far greater, indeed, than any he ever exerted when he himself 
was in the body. Well, how is this done 1 Does he come 
into mutual personal contact with the mind of each one whom 
he influences 1 Did he do this when in the external body ? 

No ; but we shall be told that, at first, he attracted but a 
small number, who fully responded to his wishes. With these 
he came into personal contact. Between himself and them 
there were no other minds, as the mediums, through whom 
Jesus communicated his influence. The twelve received it 
directly from him. And what they did not thus receive, they, 
of course, could not communicate to others. Thus, he taught 
them, " Freely ye have received, freely give." And how has 
Jesus exerted his influence since he left this external world, 
first and last? We are told that he " sends his spirit" to men, 
and influences them in this way. But what is meant by this 1 
That Jesus comes into personal contact with men now in the 
body, the same as he did before his death ? This cannot be, 
for he is not now in the body. How, then, does he now attract 
human beings that are still on this earth "? Is it not done 
mediately ? Must we not resort to the principles of nature, 
or the doctrine of the spheres, for an answer to this question ? 
Suppose he at first attracted only twelve, who fully sympa,- 
thized with his mind. This twelve, in their spheres, attracted 
a hundred, who fully sympathized with them ; and that hun- 
dred attracted a thousand, that thousand a million, and so on, 
in the ratio of geometrical progression, if you please. In what 
other sense can it truly be said that Jesus is now exerting an 
influence on or in the minds of men? How are we to suppose 
his influence is felt in the spheres above ? Is there any other 
rational idea that can be formed on this subject? Or, take 
any other personality, like that of St. Paul, Swedenborg, or 
John Wesley. The latter began his career by attracting a 
few illiterate men, who yielded in sympathy with his views 
and measures. Into these Wesley infused his own spirit, and 
they, affected with Wesley's mind, transfused themselves into 



1 



JESUS. 847 

others, and so the number was increased from year to year, 
till it might be set down at half a million, not to speak of 
those who had left this sphere for those above. So of John Cal- 
vin ; so of Mohammed, Joe Smith, and, indeed, precisely so 
of every human being that ever lived, or that ever .will live. 

Now, I do not say that the influence of Jesus, now preva- 
lent in this external world, is precisely what it would have 
been, had he remained till this time upon this earth. That is, 
had he lived here, and progressed in goodness and knowledge, 
as he has in the spheres above, he must have exerted a much 
higher influence than that which has come down to us, adul- 
terated as it must be, flowing through so many human minds 
below his own, in the quality of goodness. For, the influence 
which Jesus exerts now on earth, is not precisely that which 
he exerted when in the body, nor what he would exert were 
he now personally among us ; but it is now what the dis- 
cordant and selfish minds of men think it should be ! It is 
what the views of his followers make it. All that Jesus said 
and did, while on earth, is hidden from the present generation 
by the lapse of nearly two thousand years ; and hence, all we 
can now know about his works we have to receive through 
traditions, and interpreted to us by others, and re-interpreted 
from one language to another, before we can begin to have an 
idea even that there was ever such a personage upon this 
earth ! We have nothing purporting to be what Jesus wrote 
about himself; nothing that we ourselves received from his 
own lips ; nor have we one word that he ever uttered in our 
own language; nor can we read the first, the second, the third, 
nor, perhaps, the thousandth or ten thousandth version even of 
what he did really utter. 

Now, will it, can it be objecteij here, that we may be taught 
by his spirit? Ah, indeed! And who may be thus taught? 
" All men 1" Jews, Papists, Mohammedans, and Pagans 1 
Are all men thus taught? Are all Protestants, even thus 
taught? And why, then, do they "bite and devour one 
another?" The truth is, the condition of the race proves that 
no one class of men, may be said to have fully received the 
spirit of Jesus. For it becomes just as impossible for all now 
to know what his spirit was, as it does to know precisely the 
language which he used when transfusing himself into his im- 
mediate disciples. 

That he filled a larger sphere of goodness than any one who 
had ever lived before him ; and larger than any one who has 
ever lived since, may be easily inferred from facts admitted by 
all. But in what sense is he a model man, in what sense is 
he now present, at any given place, except as he mediately 
makes himself known by other spirits, to the affections of men, 



848 BOOK OF HUMAN NATURE. 

it would, perhaps, be difficult to show. We are separated, so 
to speak, from him, not by time merely, but by space also. 
Hence, if he exerts any influence over us, it must be done me- 
diately, through the spheres of spirits who intervene, or who 
connect us with him. The largeness of the circle or sphere 
filled by him, determines the distance from which he may be 
seen, and his infiuence felt ; as in the external world, the larger 
the body the farther it may be seen, when there are adequate 
organs of vision and appropriate mediums for the perception or 
sight of objects at a distance. Let us look at 

His Goodness, Truthfulness, Harmony. 

251. In the perfect harmony of his nature, therefore, in the good- 
ness of his real character, and the elevated truthfulness of his. 
teachings, may this distinguished personage be justly considered 
as a model man for the whole human race. The darkness of 
the age in which he appeared, prevented a true estimate of his 
mission, and from causes we have already described, mortals 
fell into extremes in judging of one so far above the mass. 
The urbanity and gentleness of his manners, the force and apt- 
ness of his answers to their questions, excited their wonder 
and surprise. The benignity of his instructions impressed 
them with a sense of his superiority ; — ^the patience with which 
he endured contradictions, his fidelity to truth and justice, put 
him in commanding contrast with all teachers who had gone 
before. And but for the political discords with which his na- 
tion was distracted, during his life, it does not appear but that 
his mission might have been protracted down to a venerable 
old age. Had he been permitted to live, had that large heart, 
that expanded benevolence, that divine benignity and good will 
to man, for which he was so conspicuous, been permitted to 
increase with the age of an ordinary life, what a sphere of Good- 
ness and Justice and Truth would have been extended over 
the race as the consequence of such a model. 

And, to think, that men should fall so far short of a just com- 
prehension of the sphere which Jesus filled, as to rejoice in his 
death, and exult even that he was cut off in the immaturity of 
his manhood ! That mortals should be so little advanced from 
infancy as to imagine that the eternal good of the race could 
not be secured without the cruel murder of such a man ! Nay, 
that the fact and the manner of his untimely exit from our earth 
was designed, planned and executed by the Infinite Father of 
all ! Such is the blighting, degrading influence of that very 
ignorance of God and nature's laws which this model of Hu- 
manity was more fitted than all others to dispel. And 0, had 
he been permitted to remain ! Could we have been permitted 
t9 contemplate him in those higher relations of life ! And why 



JESUS. 349 

not 1 Why not as a husband and a father 1 Why not 1 This 
dark theology pretends to enlighten us, as to the manner of his 
origin, as if we did not, or could not find out that the one God, 
the one Father of all, has and can have but one way of origi- 
nating men. And then this silly superstition about his origin 
deprives him of those very traits which render him a model 
Humanity itself so much delights to contemplate. 

Had Jesus been permitted to fulfill all the relations of man- 
hood, who can estimate the largeness of his sphere, the force 
of his examples, and the vast good that would thus have sooner 
resulted to the whole human race. His harmonious nature, 
his evenly balanced mind — what might not have been antici- 
pated from such a model, had ignorance permitted him to live 1 
Yes, to live, as the great design contemplated, in the har- 
monious fulfillment of all the relations of life. Human nature, 
itself, exults in the contemplation. The truthful and advanced 
intellect is enraptured in view of a model, such a model, not 
placed before us merely to be stared at, but to progress eter- 
nally. Let us see what nature will do. Let there be light. 
Ignorance must not put it out, must not put the best man to 
death, and then deprive us of the untold benefits of so divine 
a life. Nor must we be told by this same ignorance, that when 
it has murdered such a man, that God required it ; man's best 
good required it ; man's highest good is subserved most where 
no lives are cut short, where no violence is done to the external 
life ; when all is permitted to progress in harmony. 

A knowledge of the Divine and of nature's laws, enables us 
to perceive how it was, indeed, best under all the circumstances 
of the case, for Jesus to be cut off, even as he was. All men 
must act out their inmost nature, in correspondence with the 
degrees in which their love and wisdom elements are developed. 
It would not be consistent for God to work miracles, or to sus- 
pend his own laws to prevent men from acting in correspond- 
ence with their ignorance, for the time being. Men are en- 
lightened by the laws of eternal progression, not in despite of 
them. While we see that the ignorance of the race made the 
untimely death of Jesus a matter of fatal necessity, we can 
also perceive the use which it becomes the race to make of it. 

The ignorance of the nation among whom he lived rendered 
it " expedient that one man should die ;" and, now similar 
ignorance, renders it expedient for the widow in Hindostan to 
die upon the funeral pile of her deceased husband ; and this 
same necessity has drenched the world with blood, and caused, 
it may be, the untimely death of more than half the race. But 
what of that to me ? 

And, after the ignorant populace had perpetrated that bloody 
ard disgraceful deed, we can see also, the necessity which 



-850 BOOK OF HUMAN NATURE. 

impelled them to regret what they had done. Reflecting upon 
the goodness they had sinned against, the pure innocence they 
had so much outraged, it was then, the natural tendencies ot' 
the mind began to re-act, as if to atone for the wrongs that had 
been committed. Time lends its enchantment to the scene, 
and mavellousness comes in to assist in magnifying, what before 
had been depreciated. The neglected, despised Nazarene, 
crucified as a malefactor, rises now in the faith of the beholder 
with more than mortal honors. Seen, now, in the distance of 
ages, it becomes an easy matter to add the fictious to his real 
character as men have always been prone to do, after becom- 
ing sensible of a great wrong to a most worthy and innocent 
man. We, therefore, can no more depend upon the estimate 
which his immediate friends may have placed upon his origin, 
or the manner of his having actually left this sphere, than we 
can approve of the manner in which he was treated by his 
country. That he was not understood by the one, nor com- 
prehended in his real mission by the other, is now sufficiently 
manifest. To be, therefore, really benefited* in the contempla- 
tion of such an example, it must be stript of the misconceptions 
in which it has been enshrouded by the ignorance of past ages. 
To raise him out of the sphere of Human Nature, is to unfit 
him as a true model of manhood. For, more than man, he is 
not an example for me, and of course, not to be imitated. The 
only true method, therefore, for contemplating Jesus, is to look 
at him as he presents himself, or as nature has presented him 
to us. That he was a man all admit, and that he may be justly 
•considered a model man, many, perhaps, a majority of the race 
do sincerely believe. And in this light it becomes delightful, 
heavenly even to contemplate what the race may be — such as 
Jesus was, in the harmony of his nature, the enlarged goodness 
of his heart, and those beautiful Truths, deep and elevating that 
he so freely uttered ; that patient, grateful, useful Life that he 
lived, not lor himself alone ! Thus it is he becomes the wonder 
and admiration, as he may be the Inspiration and Hope, of the 
whole human world. 

Esnpediiuciits. 

252. In commencing the work of self-culture, the first thing 
to be done, is to ascertain the hindrances that may lie in our 
way. Are there any real impediments I What are they l 
And how overcome 1 These having already been set forth 
somewhat (110,) they need not be repeated here, but merely 
referred to so far as may be necessary to afford a clear 
and distinct view of the features of our subject, now under 
notice. 



I 



IMPEDIMENTS. 851 



HEREDITARY. 



253. An unhealthy, discordant organization. The com- 
plexity of human nature, the variety in the faculties, of which 
the living organism is composed, alL combine to show us how 
many disturbing causes may interfere and prevent the birth of 
a perfectly healthy, and harmoniously organized child. How 
much the health, the habits, the views, and feelings of preced- 
ing generations must have to do with it ! In what sense we 
have no control over the nature with which we were born, how 
far this is fixed and unalterable, is a discovery which it is 
necessary for us all sooner or later to make, however slow we 
may be in finding it out. It is necessary, because, till we get 
old enough to understand this important truth, we spend our 
time in grieving over the past which we cannot help. We 
complain of God, and of nature, and of ourselves, and for what ? 
Why, simply because we are ignorant, and do not know any 
better. But if man ever advances in self-culture, he begins 
by finding out the elements of his nature, and the eternal, un- 
alterable laws that have made him what he is. It never, 
therefore, should be a matter of regret that you were born at 
all, nor that you were born with such or such an organization. 
For, if you do not understand yourself, your organization may, 
for aught you know, be the best that ever was born. The only 
legitimate subject for regret is, that you are not more developed, 
that you are not cultivated, that you are not informed, that you 
are ignorant and do not know. 

It is not a question for you to decide, whether you will be or 
not. You ARE, now, and can never cease to be. And the 
question which the " mother of us all" puts to you is, will you 
BE CULTIVATED ? It was askcd by the model man, ' Wilt thou 
be made whole ?" Wilt thou progress from discord to har- 
mony, from infancy to manhood ] Will you receive goodness? 
Are you receptive of truth, of light 1 Will you advance ? Will 
you go upward and onward for ever? What of your parent- 
age? It was no merit to be born, no matter who your parents 
were. No demerit can attach on account of your origin over 
which you yourself could have no control whatever. But, 
born to manhood, born to expand and grow into the " full 
stature of a man," male or female, this indeed, is a source of 
joy ! And the more discord you brought in you, in your birth, 
the longer it makes the glorious journey of progression, which 
each of us have in prospect. 

If, now, you find yourself hindered by your organization at 
birth, then see to it, that you do not repeat the same discords 
over again in the issue that proceeds from you. You know 
more than your own parents before you^ you therefore, need 



852 BOOK OF HUMAK NATURE. 

not do as they did. See to it, that if you transmit, your nature 
to posterity it shall be improved, more harmonious and less 
diseased. So you may teach others, and thus living you may 
cultivate and improve those who come after you. Thus you 
make a virtue even of fate, and add something to the sum 
total of those influences which shall lessen and annihilate 
hereditary evils, and thus reform, regenerate, and bless the 
world. 

EDUCATIONAL. 

254. Another class of impediments come under the head of 
education. They grew out of the views that are taught ; and 
the processes that are adopted to educate, or draw out the in- 
tellectual powers. If the mind be fed with error, it must be 
temporarily hindered in its progression. AH false views of 
God, and of human nature ; all misconceptions of philosophy 
and science, have been so many hinderances in the way of all, 
true spiritual culture. We have seen, that the infantile mind 
is always dependent upon others for its spiritual food. Its 
senses are not sufficiently developed to discern between good 
and evil. As the little unfledged bird raises itself in the nest to 
receive the food from its parent, so does the human unsus- 
pectingly receive whatever is conveyed, for intellectual food. 
And here arises the danger in education. Errors taught to 
children become thus incorporated into their moral nature. 
Accustomed in early life to receive poison for wholesome 
spiritual food, the nature becomes thus accustomed to its pre- 
sence, and may be so perverted in the process of time, as even] 
to choose the bad in preference to the good. Let us examine 
here somewhat minutely : — 

Innate total Depravity. 

255. And what does this mean"? What is the idea of' 
TOTAL innate, hereditary depravity when analyzed ? For, we 
know, that if the food taken into the stomach do not contain 
the elements of life, and the materials of nutrition, its presence 
in the human system is offensive and hurtful. It not only: 
takes the place which should be occupied by good food, but it ; 
contains within itself properties that are deleterious and de- 
structive to life. So of the soul. Feed it with error, and its . 
growth is retarded, hindered, it may be, for a succession of 
ages. Because all of nature's processes which develop the 
higher forms, are slow. Mark the periods of utero-gestation, 
fixed upon by nature for the lower and higher order of ani- 
mals. Observe how long, how many countless ages, evea 
nature continued her evolutions, before she brought forth the 
human species. And then, after the race had fairly began, 



IMPEDIMENTS. 853 

see how many thousands of years had to elapse before it had 
passed the period of youth, and entered that of approaching 
manhood. As a general rule, we find the human mind is slow 
in its changes, slow especially in the processes b)'^ which it 
discovers educational errors. 

To perceive how pernicious this error in respect to innate 
depravity must be, let the reader, if possible, divest himself 
of all consciousness that any such idea were ever in existence. 
Imagine you, yourself, are the child to be taught. Your 
parent, or guardian, (or what is worse, the priest, because 
more feared, and his authority is greater) addresses you at the 
fireside thus : — 

Picture of Depravity. 

256. " You are totally, naturally, spiritually, intellectually, 
sinfully, depraved. Y'ou are depraved all over, inside and 
cut. You HATE God, the best of Beings, with a perfect 
hatred. And God, himself, hates you. You never did a good 
act in your life, and never can or will do one. Your love for 
your parents, and for your brothers and sisters, is no moral 
virtue. Indeed, all you think, all you feel, all you wish, all 
you hope, or fear, is sin and only sin, and that continually. 
You are totally depraved, and that means that you have no 
good in you. 

" You will break each one of God's commandments in thought, 
word and deed. Y^ou will lie, you know, you will. You 
will steal, you know- you will, j know you will lie and steal, 
and God knows you will, for He has declared in His holy 
word, that you are desperately wicked and totally depraved. 
He has said, you cannot ' change your spots.' And, if he do 
not change your heart, He will send you to hell, where there 
is weeping and wailing, and gnashing of teeth, with the devil 
and his angels for ever and for ever." 

How does this picture look 1 Why, ask yourself, how it 
would affect you, to hear your parent constantly addressing 
you thus : — 

" You will lie, I know you will. Yes, you will lie — you 
will lie, you will lie, I know you will ! 

"You will steal! Yes, I know you will steal, you will 
steal, you will, you will !" 

Does not '"nature herself"' teach you, that the mind of a 
child though born absolutely pure, without any depravity at 
all, if addressed in this way, and fed from day to day, and 
from year to year, with such spiritual food as this, would be- 
come depraved, his soul shrivelled and poisoned with this 
pestiferous error of total depravity. If you want your child to 
steal, or falsify, tell him, before hand, he will do so. And, 



854 BOOK OF HUMAN NATURE. 

what else do our children hear at the Sunday school 1 What 
else do we hear in the ordinary churches every Sunday? Are 
not seventy-five per cent, of all the sermons preached from 
week to week, in the land, based upon this very error as the 
foundation and corner stone of the whole system of theology 
which is taught from the Bible 1 Do we not know that the 
idea of " vicarious atonement," was forced into juxtaposition 
with this notion about total depravity, purely by the laws of 
affinity which apply to errors, no less than to chemistry and 
mental philosophy 1 An error, so monstrous, so absurd, so 
utterly impossible, could not live alone. The door of human 
credulity is opened so very wide in the admission of this dogma 
into the human mind that the other correlative slips in with it 
from the laws, not merely of affinity, but of mental necessity. 
When the mind has once swallowed poison, it thereby becomes 
weakened from the deadly influences of the false ; and, un- 
able to conserve itself against the hurtful and overpowering 
encroachments of error, it becomes an easy prey to whatever 
kindred theological errors may chance to follow in the wak'e 
of the first mistake. And when the first one, so huge in its 
dimensions, so virulent in its qualities, and so paralyzing and 
fatal in its deadening tendencies as that of the common dogma 
in respect to the innate, essential, and total depravity of the 
human spirit, when such an error enters into a human being 
and becomes a part of his moral nature, we may well pause 
in view of the terrible catastrophe that has occurred. 

Calamities that befall the external body, we can examine 
with our external senses, and, assisted by the lights of science 
and the experience of ages, we can easily determine the na- 
ture of the injury done, and the probable time of its duration. 
The ravages of that terrible disease, the Asiatic cholera, 
which has carried suffering and death in their most appalling 
forms over half the globe, even this terrible scourge is not an 
exception to this remark. The observations of a few years, 
and the aids of sound philosophy have disarmed the frightful 
monster of those ugly features which made it more dreaded 
than any form of " palsy, plague, or fever," the civilized 
world had ever known. And thus, indeed, in respect to many 
other forms of disease. The spread of medical science, the 
" reforms" alleged to have been adopted in the old and new 
schools of medicine ; the triumphs of Homceopathy, Hydropathy, 
and the Eclectic System, have inspired the world with 
hope, at least. And so much for the external. 

But, that other moral disease, that Asiatic Depravity which 
has continued its insidious ravages for some dozen centuries 
or more, striking its deadly fangs into the inmost recesses of 
man's spiritual nature — this, this is indeed a plague-spot, for 



IMPEDIMENTS. 355 

which no patent panacea has yet been found ; a malady with 
which no spiritual Hydropathy nor Homoeopathy, much less the 
Allopathy of the old Theolog^y, has as yet been able to cope. 
At first we know the Race were told that the " vicarious atone- 
ment" would arrest its progress, and eradicate the virulence 
from the human mind. But, has it done this? Are not the 
children of the most Christian parents born totally depraved, 
precisely as if no atonement had been made 1 Where, then, is 
the remedy, but in Intellectual Culture 1 " Cease to do evil." 
Cease to corrupt the mind with error. Admit the lesson taught 
us by this huge error itself; as we learn from it the imbecili- 
ties peculiar to childhood, and the ignorance characteristic of the 
infancy of the Race. It was only then, that an error so gigan- 
tic could have been concocted, or received into man's interior 
nature. But, having been once received there, because Man 
in his infancy knew no better than to receive it, so now, we 
learn from it not merely the necessity of progression, but the 
means of it also. 

Vindictive Punishment. 

257. The true doctrine of responsibility has already been 
stated. (25.) But this doctrine is not comprehended in child- 
hood, nor in the infancy of the Race. Hence it was, when 
Man had scarcely begun to form correct ideas of God, that 
the notion of eternal vindictive punishment took possession of 
the undeveloped mind. It is one of the plainest deductions of 
the fully developed faculty of Reason, that no one of God's 
laws is or can be violated, without an adequate and legitimate 
punishment as the inevitable consequence. The punishment 
of violated law follows as a matter of necessity, as much so 
as the swinging of a pendulum when moved from its equili- 
brium. 

But, what is sin ? What is a violation of moral law ? To 
ascertain, we inquire, what is the violation of organic law or 
physical law ? A man leaps from' a precipice and breaks his 
neck. That was a violation of physical law, and the penalty 
followed. He eats unwholesome food, and sickness is the re- 
sult. That is a violation of organic law, and a sample- of the 
punishment which inevitably follows. Now, if we find the 
physical and organic world uniform and unvarying in their 
laws ; if their laws are never violated without an appropriate 
and corresponding penalty, why should we expect to find it 
different when we come up to the moral world ? 

Is it, then, really different in the moral government of God 
from what we find it in the lower kingdoms 1 If we ask the 
analogy of Reason, the answer is No. If we ask Nature, the 
answer is the same. Where, thenj did this notion of vindic- 



iJ56 BOOK OF HUMAN NATURE. 

tive punishment come from ? Is it not manifestly an heredit- 
ary error ; having originated in the ignorance of the Race, it 
has been perpetuated by the natural laws of mental generation 
from age to age, till now. It has something of a triune as- 
pect, and is made up, or is affiliated to certain other cognate 
errors, which mutually prop and assist each other. Thus : — 

" An Angry Gody 

258. This means that the Deity must possess attributes in 
correspondence with man's lower nature — that very nature by 
which man was mostly governed in the primitive ages, when 
this notion first took possession of the human mind. At that 
period the world was governed by military laws and usages. 
Hence the Deity of those times was conceived to be an ambi- 
tious warrior. He was jealous of his dominions, he was vain- 
glorious of his honor. Atone time he was about to inflict 
vindictive and summary punishment upon his chosen people ; 
and he would have done so, but Moses, more merciful than God, 
told him that he better not destroy the Israelites, because if 
he did so, God's enemies would taunt him by reporting 
that he was not able to fulfil his promise in taking them into 
the promised land ! And so, on hearing this suggestion from 
Moses, God altered his mind, and did not cut off his people, 
as he would have done had it not been for the prayer of 
Moses. 

In the writings attributed to this very Moses, God is not 
only represented as being angry, and sorry that he had made 
the Human Race, but he is represented as having destroyed 
them in a fit of vindictive indignation. All his punishments 
were inflicted from this principle of vindictiveness. It was 
because God was angry, because his fury waxed hot, and 
burned to the lowest hell. And hence we are told, he de- 
stroyed the people, for no fault of their own, as in the case ot 
David's numbering Israel. He was a bloodthirsty God. He 
not only required his worshipers to mutilate their own bodies 
from love to him, but he was implacable and would not be sat- 
isfied without the sacrifices of slaughtered animals that were 
to be offered upon his altars. 

These notions may have been appropriate enough to the age 
of Moses, as the nations of that period were not sufficiently 
advanced for any higher ideas of God. The Religious Ele- 
ment was developed in the most advanced of them sufficiently 
to dispose them to sing psalms of praise to Jehovah. But the 
Wisdom Element being more imperfectly developed, they 
formed such low and discordant ideas of the true object of 
worship, and approached him in the manner they did. 

It is worthy of notice that the account that Moses gives of 



IMPEDIMENTS. 857 

God's vindictive propensities, is precisely the character that 
is given of God throughout the heathen mythology. To be a 
god was to be vindictive and revengeful. Not one priest, nor 
prophet ever spoke of the Divine as the Benign Father of the 
w^hole race of mankind ; not one ever conceived of hini as pos- 
sessing Love sufficient to render him infinitely benignant, gen- 
erous, and kind, above what it is possible for mortals to con- 
ceive. They all knew but little of themselves, but little of 
Nature and Reason, and less of God the Father of all. Hence 
they formed such low and unworthy notions of him, that they 
could imagine, that if he was not a man, he was yet so much 
like one of themselves that he could become excited with an- 
ger, and pursue with unrelenting vengeance the poor helpless 
creatures whom he had made. 

Injustice. 

259. Suspension of just punishment. A God that could get 
angry, and jealous, and vindictive, could of course interfere 
with his own immutable laws, and prevent the punishment that 
was legitimate and just. The expanded intellect may well 
ask how could this be 1 How could the Deity, who is infinite 
in wisdom, who possesses the necessary knowledge for adopt- 
ing the most appropriate means for securing the wisest and 
best ends, how could he dispense with any of these means, or 
refuse results to be brought about by such wisdom ? How ? 
Why, we have only to ask such questions in order to perceive 
what their answer must be. And hence it becomes manifest, 
that one of those great hindrances, one of those fundamental 
errors, which more than others lie in the way of spiritual 
culture, is the notion that any one of God's laws can be vio- 
lated without certain and appropriate punishment. If you 
want your child to violate law, teach him this doctrine. Be- 
gin with the notion of innate total depravity ; tell him he will 
sin — and then add, that the punishment is not certain, for if 
he will but " confess" his sin, it shall be forgiven in such a 
sense that the penalty of the law which it violated shall 
not be inflicted. Indoctrinate the mind with such contradicto- 
ry notions as these in relation to God (11) and human respon- 
sibility, and such a condition of the spiritual system is brought 
about as is far more to be deplored than pulmonary consump- 
tion or dyspepsia in the physical. Under these teachings the 
soul is stopped in its progress. The spiritual senses are 
blunted. The appetite for intellectual food becomes vitiated. 
In man's progressed and harmonious manhood, this appetite is 
satisfied only with those high and expanded truths which are 
the Fundamentals — God's eternal laws. They reach above, 
they anticipate the glories of the future. This appetite is 



358 BOOK OF HUMAN NATURE. 

as necessary for man's intellectual growth and mental de- 
velopment, as is the desire for physical food, in order to 
conserve, invigorate, and develop the external body. To viti- 
ate it, therefore, with spiritual poison, is to derange the tis- 
sues of man's inmost and highest nature, and bring about such 
derangement and disease in the mental organism as will for 
a time effectually prevent the mind from realizing any ade- 
quate conception of the injury which has been inflicted upon 
it. A system congenitally diseased does not know what good 
health is — and some diseases there are, which prevent the 
perceiving, knowing faculties, from taking any cognisance of 
the real mischief which has been so insidiously perpetrated. 
How is it in cases of intoxication 1 Cases of mental hal- 
lucination and insanity 1 How is it with children brought up 
on impure food 1 What is their appearance 1 How is it with 
the heathen — with those nations where the lights of science 
and education have scarcely dawned 1 If you would approach 
such with some of the first principles of Theology, how do you 
proceed ? What do you find to be the state of their moral 
nature 1 Upon what kind of food have their minds been fed 1 
Food of some kind, the intellectual will have. The mind must 
live. 

And here we perceive the importance of that remark already 
quoted, in respect to the ideas men form of the Deity. (111.) 
Because these ideas are formed in man's higher nature. The 
higher faculties in the human mind, have respect to the Divine, 
their functions are certainly appropriate to the conception of 
the very highest class of Truths. Contemplating God as the 
First and highest, we see what organs are appropriate, and 
■what fatal mischief is done to man's highest nature when these 
organs are perverted and diseased. In no other way could the 
mind of man be seduced into the belief of vicarious sufferings. 
It is low enough to think of the Divine when we are taught to 
believe, at a period of our lives when we do not know better, 
that God is a vindictive sovereign and punishes countless 
myriads of his creatures, for no other fault than merely acting 
out the nature that he, himself, had given them ; including of 
course, helpless infants and children. But this error, like the 
others, we have referred to, cannot stand alone, and hence, it 
drags another in its train, in respect to the atonement. Ana- 
lyzed it amounts to this : — 

Another Picture. 

260. That the whole human race, past, present, and future, 
deserved and were doomed by the Infinite Justice to suffer 
endless torments, and to open a way for them, or a part of 
them, to escape these endless torments, God punished one 



IMPEDIMENTS. 859 

who was perfectly innocent ; one who, himself, never did wrong 
nor was ever guile found in his mouth. 

But, although (xod did thus punish Jesus, by causing to be 
inflicted upon him a cruel and most horrible death, as also, by 
imposing upon his soul inexpressible sorrows and griefs, be- 
fore he was put to death, by which he made a full, perfect, and 
satisfactory atonement for all sin, past, present, and future, for 
all time to come, yet a large part, if not the greater part of the 
race will, nevertheless, fail of any and all benefit from this 
atonement, and must therefore 'retrograde, fall off, perish, and 
be more and more miserable, for ever and ever. 

What a thought of God ! Look at it. See if you can 
digest it. What is its flavor when tasted by your inmost 
love 1 How does it appear to you when examined with those 
interior eyes with which you have been accustomed to look on 
all that is truthful in theology ; all that is loving and kind and 
just in the Heavens above 1 Ask your own father, mother, 
dear? Would you do so 1 Would you, could you punish an 
innocent person ? This might be done, by an angry vindictive 
child. No MAN would do so. No womanly woman could do 
a deed like this. Ask yourself, ask your better self, could you 
do it 1 If, in a fit of sudden passion, you should chance to 
inflict pain where it was not deserved, even Upon a dog, would 
you not feel sorry for it 1 Or, should you, by design, inflict 
severe sorrow upon an innocent person, one most kind, just, 
benignant, and lovely, in all his life : O, would you, could you 
forgive yourself a deed so dark and wrong ! 

Ask Nature 1 Search out all her hidden laws in each of 
her kingdoms, throughout the entire universe of God. Is there 
any thing to be found like this horrible, unnatural, impossible, " 
injustice alleged of the Divine Father! In the mineral king- 
dom, it is repudiated from the merest pebble upon the sea- 
shore, to the lofty mountain tops which extend their uncouth 
summits towards the high heavens, as if to unite in the answer 
they hear from those peaceful regions disclaiming in behalf of 
God their maker a dogma so hideous and dreadful. In the 
vegetable kingdom unnumbered voices unite to free the uni- 
versal Father from an aspersion so unnatural. She furnishes 
no analogies. From the bitterest of plants that spring from 
out of the earth, to the 

" Proud rose, with rains and dews 
Her head impearling." 

From the creeping ivy on the wall, to the lofty and far famed, 
cedars of Lebanon, she furnishes no authority for an anomaly 
so utterly at variance with all her laws. We ask the animal 
kingdom and the same answer is given. We look up to the 



860 BOOK OF HUMAN NATURE. 

starry heavens above where innumerable worlds constantly 
revole m solemn grandeur around their central luminary, and 
we ask if any injustice, any interference with the laws of 
Omnipotence are known throughout the vast regions of space 
traversed by their stupendous motions'? Can there be any 
thing like it in the Heavens above, or in the earth beneath, or 
can there be a hell where a deed so foul and unnatural could 
find a place, a local habitation and a name 1 

So we conclude, if all of God's laws, in each of his king- 
doms, repudiate this notion, it cannot be true. If all of 
nature's analogies are against it, nay, if our higher and more 
enlightened faculties refuse it a place in our better judgment, 
then it cannot be true ; nor need it be, seeing that we have 
found the source whence alone, errors like this are generated 
and born. And thus we find the Benign Father of all, allow- 
ing of infancy, not as individuals merely, but of the race, 
infancy, with all its imbecilities, all its fears, all its misconcep- 
tions even, of the Great Parent, who is the most to be loved, 
and who himself knows, that all these errors must pass away 
with childhood and its concomitant puerilities. 

Science. 

261. The order of Nature, is Science, Philosophy, and 
.Theology. The term Science applies more to man's method 
of thinking, or his observations of the external world. Philo- 
sophy to the internal, the whi/ and wherefore of things; and 
Theology, to the views which science and philosophy, oi* the 
want of them, have developed in man, concerning God, and a 
future state of being. Let us consider each in their natural 
order, and see if we may not be conducted to some higher 
AUTHORITY in matters concerning man's highest good, than is 
to be found in the past, whether in science, philosophy, or 
theology, as far as these depend upon tradition, and have come 
down to us from the records of the undeveloped ages. Let us. 
see if we can find the thread of truth that will lead us safely 
through the labyrinths of discord, and collecting the scattered 
rays of light that shine upon us from the great centre, we may 
thus be conducted to those conclusions concerning man, his 
origin, the laws of his nature, and his final destiny that will 
afford us unmixed satisfaction in the contemplation. 

As we may suppose theology to have grown out of man's 
religious nature, so the term science may be used to signify a 
knowledge of nature as a system, or as a system of theories. 
It comprehends more of the external, more of the physical, bntJ 
like all else that occupies man's memory, it has had its origia 
in nature, in human nature, and must, therefore, correspondj 
with the progression of the race. A knowledge of the history 



SCIENCE. S61 

of any one branch of science will show how it has done so, and 
kept pace, precisely with the developments of man's knowing 
faculties by which all science is, and must be comprehended. 
Witness the views Ijiat the Bible writers had of astronomy ; in 
their day the earth stood still and the sun revolved around it 
daily. 

Science then, is that view which the mind takes of the 
system of things ; as we have seen (34, 35,) it is not a reality, 
in itself considered, but merely the form of human thought. 
The views already given in the preceding pages will assist us 
in estimating the use of science in the great work of human 
progression. By this very progression, it is found all science 
has been developed, that is, all truths have become apparent 
precisely in corresponding degrees as the human intellect has 
been able to comprehend them, or, rather, the mind has dis- 
covered truths, only so far as it has been developed. At first 
thought, this statement might seem repulsive ; but in reality it 
is not so. Its consideration, becomes one of those causes 
which inspire the mind and impel it forward in its searches 
after truth. If all science be the result merely of human in- 
tellectuation, then what may we not anticipate *as the glories 
of the still unfolding future 1 What wonders, what miracles 
have already rewarded the toil of the student who has waited 
patiently at the portals of nature's temple ! Such strides, in- 
deed, have the race taken in giving shape and form to science, 
that the mind seems scarcely capable of even contemplating 
the ground over which it has passed. Contemplate for ex- 
ample, a star of the seventh magnitude. We see it, not as it 
is now, but as it was one hundred and eighty years ago ! Or 
if we gaze at a star of the twelfth magnitude, we see it as it 
was four thousand years ago, and not as it is now. And sup- 
posing a star may yet be discovered of the twenty-seventh 
magnitude, the astronomer who first perceives it, will see it 
as it was many millions of years ago ; and should it be inhabit- 
ed by intelligences like ourselves, they will, or may, see our 
earth as it was millions of years ago, ages on ages, before 
vegetable or animal life appeared. 

And yet, what mere assertion will make any man believe all 
this, or that in one beat of the pendulum of a clock, a ray of 
light travels over 192,000 miles, and would, therefore, perform 
the tour of the world in about the same time it requires to wink 
with your eye-lids, and in much less than a swift runner 
occupies in taking a single stride ? What mortal can be made 
to believe, without demonstration, that the sun is almost a 
million times larger than the earth ; and that, although so 
remote from us, a cannon ball shot directly towards it, and 
maintaining its full spefed, would be twenty yeiars in^eaehing it, 
16 



862 BOOK OF HUMAK NATURE. 

it yet affects the whole earth by its attraction, in an inappreciable 
instant of time 1 Who would not ask for demonstration, when 
told that a gnat's wing, in its ordinary flight beats many 
hundred times in a second ; or that there ^exist animated and 
regularly organized beings, many thousands of whose bodies, 
laid close together, would not extend an inch ? But what 
are these to the astonishing truths which modern optical 
inquiries have disclosed, vvhich teach us, that every point of a 
medium through which a ray of light passes is affected with a 
succession of periodical movements, regularly recurring, at 
equal intervals, no less than five hundred millions of millions of 
times in a single second ! That it is by such movements, com- 
municated to the nerves of the eyes, that we see ; nay, more, 
that it is the difference, in the frequency of their recurrence, 
which affects us with the sense of the diversity of color ; that, 
for instance, in acquiring the redness, our eyes are affected 
482 millions of millions of times ; and of violet, 707 millions of 
millions of times per second. Do not such things sound more 
like the ravings of madmen than the sober conclusions of men in 
their waking senses'? They are, nevertheless, conclusions to 
which any onS must certainly arrive, who will only be at the 
trouble of examining the chain of reasoning by which they 
have been obtained.* 

Such are the wonders of science, and as it is the mind's 
method of viewing being, let us see with what exactness, 
these methods have corresponded with the developments of 
mind, and the correlative signs of progression which the 
stream of time has thrown up as the race have passed along 
its shores, thus : 

1. The early ages. Logic, which took cognisance of iden- 
tity and equality. It may be said to be the universal form of 
science, and therefore the first, because its processes included 
reasoning. Intellectuation, therefore, was the beginning of 
all science, for as soon as the human mind began a process of 
reasoning, the science of logic was founded ; and hence we j^ 
say, that this preceded, and, indeed, comprehends all other 
systems known under the name of science. '^. 

2. Succeeding ages developed Mathematics, Algebra, and 
Geometry. Men began to take cognisance of space, the hea- 
venly bodies, which carried them forward into a knowledge of 
Dynamics, and the forces of Nature. 

3. Progressing, they acquired a knowledge of Mechanism, 
Force, governed by art. Hydrodynamics, Pneumatics, Acous- 
tics, Optics, Thermology, Magnetism and Electricity. Dur- 

* See Herschel's Discourse on Natural Philosophy, in Dr. Lardner's 
Cyclopaedia, Vol. xiv. 



PHILOSOPHY. 863 

ing this period man progressed in the knowledge of the im- 
ponderable jfluids, the Atmosphere, and Chemistry. 

4. The preceding steps brought man to a knowledge of the 
Vegetable Kingdom ; and Physiology, Vegetable and Animal ; 
the phenomena of Life and Vitality. 

5. The following ages usher him into the science of Man- 
hood, of Human Nature, of Phrenology, Psychology, of Man's 
Spiritual Nature, and his approaching destiny, including all 
that is anticipated in Social Reform, Fraternity, Political 
Economy, and the laws of eternal progression. 

Thus it is easy to trace parallels throughout the past histo- 
ry of the Race, showing that all science has been but a reflec- 
tion from the mind of man, from age to age ; and thus, if 
History be Philosophy speaking by examples, it becomes 
manifest, how much the views here given of Man, are set 
forth and confirmed by all that History has recorded, both of 
body and of mind. Keep it in view, therefore, that as science 
in past ages was Man's method of thought, so Philosophy and 
Theology must, from laws of mathematical necessity, have 
corresponded. Theology follows Science, precisely as man- 
hood follows youth. The important use to be made of this 
fact will appear in the sequel. 

I*IiifiosopSiy. 

262. As the term Science signifies the knowledge of being 
in general, and applies more to the external^ so the term Phi- 
losophy, (love of wisdom) signifies the internal, the hidden 
laws of cause and effect — in other words, the method, the sys- 
tem, the rationale of Relations, in the development of Forms, 
or the phenomena of science. It takes the observations, the 
classifications of science, and traces the results that have ap- 
peared, to their appropriate causes. And here, also, we have 
only to examine the history of philosophy, and we shall find 
the same laws of general correspondence, the same la'ws of 
association, progression and development, which from the 
first (24) we have found entering into Nature and the consti- 
tution of things. When the powers of observation were lim- 
ited ; when there was not much to be knov/n, because Nature 
had not developed her wonders, then science was meagre, and 
philosophy had scarcely made a beginning. Thus if we no- 
tice the successive steps which have been taken by Philosophy 
in order to arrive where we now find it, this doctrine of pro- 
gression now under notice, becomes too apparent to be 
doubted. We thus perceive the order of the Divine, and the 
processes by which man arrives at the highest knowledge not 
of nature, and science, and philosophy, but in the united voice 



B6i BOOK OF HUMAN NATURE. 

of all these he listens to the Divine mandates that settle in his 
mind his future destiny. Here he jfinds the " higher law," 
the rule of life. Here the light which points out to him, not 
merely what he should do, but it assigns the most satisfactory 
reasons, why it should be done, why one course of conduct 
should be pursued rather than another. 

1. The farther back we go in the history of the race, the 
less we find of real philosophy. Consult the oldest records of 
all nations, and how very little you find that evinces any con- 
siderable knowledge of the laws of matter or of mind. Obser- 
vation was confined to the external. But this as we have 
seen, (35, 222,) is not the real. At a time, therefore, when 
the race was small, when their powers of scientific research 
were very limited ; and, when they never attempted to pene- 
trate beneath the surface of any thing, philosophy was in a 
state of infancy corresponding with man's method of investiga- 
tion. And we know, -that it was in this period of the world, 
that the Bible was written, upon which mortals now depend 
for the most accurate and reliable views of God and the laws 
of nature. But how could men, who were mere pigmies in 
philosophy, give the highest forms of philosophy, that philo- 
phy which explains the higher laws either of matter or mind ? 
To state this assumption is but to show its absurdity. Is it 
said that the writers of the Bible were infallibly inspired? 
But how does this appear 1 In what they wrote ] Is there 
any other way of j;esting this question, then by an appeal to 
their compositions 1 This very thing we propose to do, and 
if the Bible itself be permitted to utter its own unperverted 
testimony, we shall find, that it affords no support whatever to 
this notion of infallible, plenary inspiration. The doctrine of. 
correspondences we know to be true, it is true now, and 
always was true. If, then, the theological notions of Moses, 
corresponded with the science and philosophy of the primitive 
ages, it is certain that, his God was precisely what his phi- 
losophy made him. This we should infer, reasoning a priori : 
and it is in perfect agreement with the state of science preva- 
lent during the age in which the Old Testament was written. 
Take those writings as a whole, and it is instructive to per- 
ceive how exactly all the ideas they give of God and the laws 
of nature correspond with their methods of thought in respect 
to the external world. They knew but little, their philosophy 
was meagre indeed, and they were the men to represent God 
as grieving, (" crying in his heart," as the Hebrew reads) they 
were the philosophers to speak of the Infinite God as pas- 
sionate, vindictive, implacable, wrathful, vainglorious, and dis- 
appointed in his works. 

2. If the highest views of science, developed a philosophy 



PHILOSOPHY. 865 

that accounted for phenomena, by attributing them to a snake, 
a serpent or the devil, shall man now look to that philosophy 
as the highest authority for what he receives or believes ? 
When there was a heavy wind, the Hebrev/ said God shook 
the trees, " a terrible shaking of God ;" when he described a 
large hill, it was called " a mountain of God." When he 
would describe a tyrant like Pharaoh, he said " God hardened 
his heart." When a severe calamity has befallen the people, 
he says " God did it," " God provoked David to do so and so," 
or at another time, he says the " devil tempted David," and 
God put the people to death as the consequence. Now, in all 
these solutions of phenomena that appeared, we perceive the 
philosophy of the men who wrote the Bible. It was a shal- 
low, imperfect account of the internal causes of things. It 
was during those periods that men believed in metempsychosis. 
The notion of the soul's migrating, from one external form to 
another, was advanced by Pythagoras, one of the first philoso- 
phers and teachers of the age, and in this manner, the wise 
ones attempted to account for the mysteries of human nature. 
It prevailed in the days of Jesus, as is evident from the ques- 
tion put to him by his disciples in respect to the man who was 
born blind. They asked him, " who did sin, this man, or his 
parents, that he was born blind V Implying that that man had 
previously lived in some other body, in which he had sinned, 
and thus, God had brought him forth again in another body, to 
suffer the appropriate punishment. And to this day, this very 
notion is believed, where a similar philosophy obtains among 
the leading minds like the Budhists, and Brahmins of India. 

Now, we inquire, are not nature's laws, the laws of God ? 
And shall we go back two or three thousand years, and take 
the views of such philosophers as our highest authority for 
what we believe of God and his laws ? 

3. As succeeding periods afford larger opportunities for 
scientific observation, corresponding advances were made in 
the philosophy which explained the causes of things, and 
traced out their relation to their appropriate results. Notice 
how men began to reason, when science had so crowded 
phenomena upon their attention that they were forced to 
classify and arrange them into systems ; thus, they were 
forced to separate individualities, and view one world as 
distinct from another. Things, atoms, and living organisms 
were systematized, each having its appropriate place, and 
holding a peculiar relation to others of the same class, or to 
one general whole. As if a very curious piece of machinery 
were found of most complicated and beautiful workmanship. 
The like of it had never been seen before 1 Where did it 
come from 1 How was it made 1 Let us dissect it and see. 



S66 EOOK OF HUMAN KATURE. 

So it is taken in pieces. Each of its parts are viewed in de- 
tail. Man was astonished and overpowered in the contempla- 
tion of an organism so mysteriously combined, so nicely con- 
structed, and finished in such perfection of beauty ; and yet he 
never once thought to ask himself, what the power, or the 
process of that power must be which kept the watch in motion. 
Such was the philosophy of the middle ages. It was then, 
the most intelligent philosophers known, were advocates of the 
now exploded notions of alchemy, and the processes of ana- 
lysis. In reading the accounts that have come down to us of 
their researches and speculations on the phenomena of chem- 
istry and vitality, we marvel that ihey should have failed to 
find the redl philosopher's stone of which they were in pursuit. 
How is it that they failed to discover the unseen causes of 
the effects which had so long lain open to the observation of 
the race ? They often sto.od aghast at the hoarse mutter of 
the distant thunder as it rolled its deep reverberations through 
the heavens. That, said the philosopher, is the voice of God. 
They witnessed the lightning's red glare dividing the sky above 
them ; but never once suspected the real cause. And the 
time was, we are assured, when a President of Harvard col- 
lege, (Mather) was seen digging at the foot of a tree near his 
house, " to find the thunder-bolt" shot from the clouds, the 
tree having just been struck with lightning. Such was the 
philosophy of this country two hundred years ago. 

4. Another step and we are brought to a more thorough ac- 
quaintance with chemistry, which, to philosophy, is what phi- 
losophy is to theology. It shows the hidden relations, affini- 
ties, and qualities of things, and how much it has to do witn 
the true science of man, has already been shown in the pages 
of this work. (27, 12, 39.) Its details put the mind upon those 
courses of investigation which led to a knowledge of the laws 
of magnetism, electricity, electro-magnetism, and the hidden 
forces of the universe. And then it was, man began to make 
rapid progress into the world of causes. He now extends 
his observation beyond the external, he finds in himself a dis- 
position not merely to notice the phenomena that have oc- 
curred, but his love of wisdom leads him to find the laws by 
which they have been developed. And thus perceiving cer- 
tain correspondences between the external form of the head, 
and peculiar mental manifestations, we have the philosophy of 
mind, or phrenology. Thus of vitality, in physiology, anti the 
laws of life. Now, more than ever, does man begin to com- 
prehend the causes and laws of his own being. He is the 
crowning glory of all that has appeared upon this globe, which 
belongs to him. He has surveyed it, nor this alone. But, 
extending his mind, his philosophy, to remote and distant 



PHILOSOPHY. 867 

planets, worlds so far off, that they can scarcely be reached 
even by thought, ho has thus been enabled to tell their num- 
ber, location, size, and the laws that have placed and kept 
them where they are. Thus exploring the vast universe of 
God, and treasuring up the sciences that fix the philosophy of 
tilings, he comes into himself for a knowledge of that higher 
philosophy which appertains to his inmost nature, and is as 
necessary for his perfection as a larger garment is befitting 
manhood, more than that worn in a state of childhood and 
youth. Strictly speaking, therefore, philosophy is God's 
living voice, and science the pages of the book in which it is 
written. The voice of the Divine is in the laws of being. 
God is in his works, in the laws by which He develops nature 
and the race of man. Is it true, then, that man is God's 
highest work, the crowning glory of His development? Is he 
the perfection of all that preceded, combining so much of love 
and wisdom, that all creation does him homage ? Nay, he is 
made in the very image of the Divine, and bears upon his 
form the impress of his Maker. 

Here, then, we find the direction in which we must look to 
see God. We learn to distinguish the voice in which He 
speaks. We feel after Him, and happily find Him in Hu- 
manity ! Here is His Book, here His Will, His laws, the 
knowledge of which is the only true philosophy, and the ful- 
filment of them the only true theology. This is religion, this 
is progression, and the destiny of the whole human race. 

THE DIVINE PHILOSOPHY. 

263. The term Divine is used to signify the- higher, or 
highest, that which is the nearest perfection. Man feels the 
want of assistance in his searches after truth. He asks for 
light. He seeks it in books, in the records of the past. He 
leans upon the ministers of an old theology, and says, "what 
shall I dol I want to be happy. I have fears for the future. 
I do not know. Teach me.'' And, in response to his prayer, 
he is taught as we have seen (107,) by being carried into the 
invisible, or fed with the old angular ideas peculiar to the days 
of Pharaoh, and the plagues of Egypt. From the inmost 
(which are Divine) impulses of his nature, therefore, man 
instinctively seeks for a philosophy by which he may be 
guided ; and by philosophy of some kind, high or low, dis- 
cordant or harmonious, he is guided always. His reason will 
never be satisfied without it. And, now, reader, let me put a 
thread in your hand. Hold on here, follow this thread, till 
you find satisfaction. If you become satisfied that it is unsafe, 
let it go, and follow in this direction no more. Stop short. 



368 BOOK OF HUMAN NATURE. 

Aspire no more for truth. Pray no more for light. Thirst no 
more for the waters of life. Never knock again at the door 
of that temple which the Divine philosophy has erected for 
you and for all the human race. Ask no more for the bread 
of eternal life. Why should you? You ask but to be 
mocked with an eternal famine. You seek the living among 
the dead bones of the past. You thus spend your money for 
that which cannot satisfy. 

But, may be, you are not afraid to follow. You are im- 
pelled in your desires to know the truth, and the highest 
truths that are knowable by the race. And, while deli- 
berating as to the most appropriate means, you find yourself 
surrounded by innumerable theories, creeds, and different 
views, all clamoring for the precedence. What will you do 1 
I answer, take hold on this thread and follow where it leads : — 

Doctrine of Correspondences. 

264. There is, indeed, a charm in that word ! What it 
means, I have already attempted to explain. (35.) Let me 
entreat you to take hold of this principle. It leads from atom 
to atom ; from plant to plant ; from kingdom to kingdom ; 
from animals to man ; from man to God. It extends through 
all spheres, all worlds, all individualities, societies, families, 
and nations of men ; not a particle of matter, not a motion in 
the universe, not a jarring note, nor a harmonious strain, but 
in which this all-pervading principle may be found. Nay, 
until you have found this principle in the less and more imper- 
fect forms, you have no clue for guidance in seeking for that 
which is above. If God be in the less, He must be in the 
greater. But, how shall we find Him ? 

Take hold of this Divine principle of correspondences, when 
you begin your investigations. 

Suppose, now, you have no theory, no settled views, no 
philosophy in respect to yourself, or any thing else. Ah, but 
this cannot be. Do you act from reason ? Are you an intel- 
ligent being ? You do then, certainly, act from some motive, 
either high or low 1 And now, what I affirm, is that without 
a knowledge of this principle of correspondences, you are like 
the ship upon the broad ocean without a compass. You are 
driven and tossed about by every wind and tempest, without 
any philosophy upon which you can rely with safety. What 
you need, is a knowledge of the doctrine of degrees (35) and 
correspondences. Find this thread in the beginning. See 
how much assistance it will afford you, as, step by step, you 
tread your way up through nature to nature's God. 

You have a journey of one hundred miles to travel. The way 



PHILOSOPHY. 869 

is devious and uncertain. You are told that a certain tele- 
graphic wire has been laid the entire distance, and if you 
follow that you cannot go wrong. You start with hesitancy, 
and proceed upon the route ; and as you travel you notice 
through every thick forest, through every crook and turn of the 
road, over the high hills, and extending through valleys, — 
creeping along by the river side, from one locality to another, 
that same telegraphic wire is always present. Finding you have 
traveled twenty-five miles, and the wire still in sight, what is 
the reasonable presumption in respect to the other. portion of 
the journey not yet gone over 1 

Thus it is, with this ever present and Divine principle of 
correspondences. You begin, and find it in the pebble upon 
the sea shore, and the uncouth sea shell washed up by its side ; 
in the little daisy that lifts its modest head, and bows to the 
gentle breeze ; in every leaf and unfolding flower ; in every 
shrub, and every tree, of all varieties, scattered over the broad 
surface of this earth. Follow it, and you are carried up into 
the animal kingdom, and here, between different races, tribes, 
and species that have come and gone, during the succeeding 
and untold ages of the past. Thus, from one degree to another, 
from one sphere that you know, ft conducts you to another 
you did not know, till you are finally brought to the mental 
world, of which you, yourself make a part. And here, you are 
assisted by it, even more than by all that has gone before. 
Here it leads and guides you from the external to the internal, 
from results that you see, to their laws, which you do not see 
with your external eyes. And, thus it is, you follow an infal- 
lible guide, in entering the world of causes, in tracing the laws 
which produce all phenomena, and find that you do not begin to 
comprehend the true philosophy of things, and, especially of 
your own being, until you have entered this world of causes, 
but which you can never find without this principle of cor- 
respondences, which pervades the entire universe of being. 
Hold on upon this principle, never proceed one step where 
you cannot find this ray of light. Believe no dogmas, no 
creeds, no " revelations," no " raps," no communications, no 
sermons, no gospel, no Bible, no God, where you do not find 
this principle of correspondence. 

It is but another word for harmony. All of God's laws must 
harmonize, must correspond. All effects must correspond, 
harmonize with the laws of their induction. And, as this prin- 
ciple, like the laws already described (24,) is unvarying and 
eternal, so we may be sure of error, where it is not found, and 
this error is either in ourselves or the subject of our thoughts. 
If there be a real correspondence, which we may fail to see, 
for the want of eyes, then we say the error is in ourselves ; bu» 



870 



BOOK OF HUMAN NATURE. 



if we are sufficiently advanced to be able to comprehend the 
doctrine of degrees, and do not find this correspondence, then 
we say the error is external, and consequently not to be 
received. With such authority man can but be satisfied. He 
is in search of Truth, or Happiness, and when he can bring 
this principle as authority, the mind rests here. This corres- 
ponds with all else that I know ; it is in harmony with the 
physical, organic, and mental laws of the universe. It agrees 
with science, with philosophy, and theology, past and present. 
It harmoniz^es with the external world, with all the phenomena 
of nature. How can l help believing 1 God is a God of 
harmony, all his works, external and spiritual correspond. My 
reason assures me it cannot be otherwise. Here then, I find 
a guide, a Saviour, that it is always safe to follow, and for the 
want of whom multitudes have made shipwreck of reason and 
cast themselves away. 

Progressive. 

265, This trait attaches to the principle already described. 
And by this we know that we have got hold of the right clue. 
All of nature's laws speak this language. They move, they go 
forward, they develop the mineral, vegetable, animal, spiritual. 
It is characteristic of the universe. Nay, it is God, in the 
universe. Science is progressive, philosophy is progressive, 
man is progressive. 

Traveling around in a circle is not progression. The 
vegetable fills a small circle. It germinates, spreads its leaves, 
unfolds its flower, bears its seed, then withers, droops and dies. 
The successive spring, another germ does the same. A little 
higher up, and we find the animal, more complicated, approach- 
ing still nearer to individuality, yet falling below it, in a mere 
circle. It does not ascend ; there is no progression here, 
nothing of the spiral. In one sense, which the doctrine of 
correspondences explains, all nature progresses. The mineral 
progresses, and flows into the vegetable. The vegetable pro- 
gresses, and flows into the animal ; and all below, progress and 
flow into man. Because the entire universe was made for 
man to develop the human race. That philosophy, therefore, 
which does not teach this doctrine of progression, is not the 
true one. That Bible, that creed, that does not recognize this 
all-pervading characteristic of nature, is not the one for man ; 
not what the race needs, and what the race needs, the race 
will have. For the doctrine of correspondences assures us that 
God creates no wants without an ample provision for an 
adequate supply. 

Test all refonns, alf religions, all forms of sectarianism by 



THEOLOGY. 371 

this principle. If they be not susceptible of improvement, if 
they do not, or cannot progress, have done with them. 

" This iron bedstead they do fetch 
To try our hopes upon, 
If too sliort we must be stretched, 
Cut otf, if we are too long." 

Such is the method of sectarianism, which has the "mark 
of the beast" upon it. 

The Human. 

266. What is science, philosophy, or theology good for, that 
does nothing for the race 1 Does it promise good for man % 
Does it centre here ? Is it humanitary ? Is it in man or out 
of him ^ Is it a part of Human Nature, an element of 
manhood 1 

The objection to the old theology is, that it is extrinsic, it is 
external, has to do with the distant past, more than the coming 
future. What was Moses, or Pharaoh, or David, or Solomon 
to me, except, as they contribute to my being more than they 
were? Paul was a man, and but a man. So ami a man. 
Now we have seen all the sciences, all the philosophy, and all 
theology of the past, pomting to the development of manhood. 
Man is above all books, all creeds, all philosophy. All nature 
does is for him ; all God does is in him ; to develop, and cul- 
tivate his soul, into a full grown man. It is the humanity of 
the gospel, that makes it of God. It is the tendency of all to 
help forward the great work of progression, that makes it 
worthy of notice. Hence it is, that the highest philosophy, 
the highest authority in matters of theology, is to he jound in 
man, not outside of him. Were it external to him, how could 
it ever enter into him. He receives nothing that is not 
humanitarv, flowing from God into man, and from man to man. 
This is Divine. This is Truth. This is God. This is 
Heaven. 

Tlieology. 

267. Thus we have been conducted, step by step, from the 
lower to the higher, from the imperfect to the perfect, from 
science to philosophy, and from philosophy to God, or theology, 
which is the highest form, or the perfection of all that has gone 
before. What, then, is the true Theology? What does it 
teach of God 1 Where shall we find him ? And what are the 
laws by which he develops and governs the world ? It may 
be well, therefore, to answer these questions here, while in the 
lull view of the philosophy which has conducted us to the very 
position or place where alone the true answers are to be found. 
And having listened to the beautiful responses which the TiU 



872 BOOK OF HUMAN NATUEE. 

vine Father has vouchsafed to give us, for solving^ the most 
important and momentous problem that ever occupied the hu- 
man intellect, we may then be the better prepared to contrast 
the Divine Philosophy with the old theology, and thus be ena- 
bled to judge of the comparative claims in the authority of 
each. 

Mail Science. 

268. As all science exists in the mind, its tendency must 
always be to intellectual development, to the improvement of 
man's condition. And, as all the past investigations have evi- 
dently corresponded with the progression of the race, so, it is 
manifest, that man must find himself the crowning glory of all 
science, precisely as he ascends in the scale of his develop- 
ment. Here have centered all those investigations of all that 
has preceded in respect to the Essence, Form, and Use of 
all things ; to this position have all the facts in respect to 
matter, force, and motion tended ; and thus we find that the 
science which tells us what man is, what he may be, is the 
very highest and most important of all subjects which can 
come within the reach of our investigations. But, in approach- 
ing these higher features of our theme, we are met with a 
class of difficulties which appear to be more in the external, 
more open to observation, and hence more under the voluntary 
control of those whom they most concern. Complicated, in- 
deed, they are — deep-rooted and extending their blighting in- 
fluences throughout all the sinuosities of the social body. Like 
those we have been considering, they had their origin in the 
infancy of manhood, and most of them may, perhaps, be con- 
sidered as growing directly or indirectly o«t of one or the oth- 
er of those evils that have already been described. 

Good health, then, cannot be where there is discord in the 
vital system, nor can there be mental sanity and high degrees 
of intelligence in those systems where there is more or less 
disturbance in the higher organs appropriated to mental mani- 
festations. And what the congeries of organs are in an indi- 
vidual, a circle of individuals are in the family. If the diiFer- 
ent members act in harmony, all is peace and happiness ; but 
if there be discord, bitter antagonisms are thereby generated. 
And hence it is, if the different members in the social body, 
happen to be fortuitously so associated as to find their interests 
and wants antagonizing, they spend the time and the energy in 
opposing one another, that should be devoted to the demolition 
of the common enemy. Nor should we be likely to obtain a 
better view of the progressive tendencies of the race, perhaps, 
than by contrasting even the present with the past, in this re- 
spect. 



MAN SCIENCE. 373 

Extending our inquiries as far back as history gives us any 
account of man, we find all the indications of ignorance, not 
merely of the arts and sciences, not merely of God and man's 
true destiny, but of those relations of life whence origin- 
ate the family and the social state. The name even of savage 
scarcely conveys a just conception of the selfishness and sla- 
very which everywhere prevailed in the early ages. Divided 
and subdivided, they were held together by no bonds but those 
of cupidity ; they were attracted by no ideas of goodness above 
what each saw in spoiling and robbing his fellow. 

In a state of society so very low, war and rapine were pur- 
sued as the chief ends of life. It afforded no protection for 
the defenceless or the weak, and knew no higher law than that 
of dictation and superior physical force. 

It is not improbable, but that the race had lived even for 
ages before any definable idea was entertained of a Supreme 
Being, as it is certain that the first that were conceived, did 
not raise the God that was believed in or feared, above the 
stones, trees, and animals, which everywhere struck their or- 
gans of sense. To us it seems that such a state of existence 
must indeed be deplorable. But we should bear in mind that 
it is the infancy of the Race of which we are speaking. A 
time when man could have no lights of science or experience 
to guide him in procuring his food or a shelter for his body. 
There were, then, no factories, no tools, no schools, no 
stores of merchandise, no implements of husbandry, no wea- 
pons, even, with which to secure the game for his necessary 
food. How could man live in such a state "? How did he 
learn to cause the corn to grow ? How did he acquire the 
knowledge for cooking his food ? Or how did he know that it 
needed any cooking at all ? Is such a conception incredible ? 
At first thought it may be. But reflect again. 

The Race must have had a beginning as a Race, or it could 
not now be. It does not follow that society was ever at any 
time composed exclusively of infants, either of two or more. 
Nothing of the kind. The Race, as such, had a beginning. 
(41.) And we know it is safe and consistent for us to follow 
the analogies of Reason, and the doctrine of Correspondences, 
in estimating the distance traveled over from that time till 
now. As my own origin is hidden, and T may not extend 
my knowledge thereof any further than the laws of Nature and 
Progression will allow, as those laws fix the limits of many 
things that concern Manhood, so we say the Race was born, 
as a Race, brought forth by Nature's unfolding tendencies. Sq 
that now, looking back upon the long vista which reaches in- 
to the unknown, it is not difficult to admit the savagism, the 
despotism, oppression, and the feudalism of those ages. In- 



874 BOOK OF HUMAN NATURE. 

deed, it becomes an easy matter to contrast the female eleva- 
tion of the present, with the abuse to which the mother, the 
wife, the daughter and the sister were subject two thousand 
years ago, or even now, in many countries where they re- 
ceive tlie Bible as paramount authority in matters of religious 
belief. The freedom of the present, compared with the sla- 
very of the past ; the general peace of the present time, with 
the frequent, bloody and offensive wars of former ages, and 
more, the right to self-government, the doctrine of Individual 
Sovereignty, which is certainly just now beginning to prevail. 
These contrasts evince the progression of the social state, not 
in the arts and sciences merely, but in those conditions which 
make the individual, conjugal, parental, filial, fraternal, and 
universal relations of life. Their foundation and origin, as I 
have shown, are in the Love Element, which makes Self- 
hood, and conserves the organism into one individual, who is 
distinct, and, in a comparative sense, independent of all others. 

Selfhood. 

269. Contemplating man as an individual, we notice those 
loves and corresponding actions which not only show him to 
be separate from all others, but, in what respects he is so. The 
first tendency, or the first love, which it seems most in order 
to notice, is that which disposes tiie individual to monopoly, 
or what perhaps is a better term, to Individuality. It is to 
make all like himself. Ifiie receives food into his stomach, 
it is to become a part of himself ; air into his lungs, he retains 
a part of it, and it becomes incorporated into his own. body, 
his soul, his spirit. If he writes or speaks, it is to make 
those who read or those who hear, think as he does, act as he 
does. It is to bring them into himself. If he address himself 
to the Deity, it is the same — he wants God to think as he 
does, to take the same views as he does. All this is the lan- 
guage of Individuality. And why may we not so consider the 
Individualism of the Deity ? Is he not an Infinite Personality 1 
And, if so, what are his tendencies? What does he dol 
What are the motions of his love and wisdom, in respect to 
Himself? Are they not to make all like himself? And is it 
not the highest that can be spoken of any mortal when we say 
he is like God ? Was it not this Divine likeness that made 
one to whom we have referred so near a model man ? 



270. But we have, also, seen that all the Divine Father 
does, is not for Himself alone. He diffuses Himself, reflects 
Himself, and makes individuals like you, whom He is for thiis 
reason said to create in His own image. So the cultivated 



- MAN SCIENCE. 375 

mind, discovering this fundamental doctrine of individualism, 
does not rest here. This would be supreme selfishness, sec- 
tarianism, which is nothing more nor less than that state of 
the organism in whicli a majority of its motions are centrip- 
etal. They centre inward. They receive, but do not give. 
Whereas, the harmonious mind receives but to expend and to 
give to others. Egotism, therefore, is the bohon upas of all 
true advancement. It is the fatal spell that ties up the ex- 
panding faculties, withers the whole mental organism, and 
makes a pigmy of what might otherwise be a full grown man. 
It stints the intellectual growth, and puts a sphere around the 
one wiio is thus shut up in self, that is at once repulsive in the 
extreme. A bigot, or an egotist may be justly compared to a 
turtle, or one of those repulsive creatures that live mostly out 
of sight of mortals, and, when the eye once chances to fall 
upon them, it is turned off quickly upon other objects more 
lovely and agreeable to contemplate. Even if they have some 
colors, or one or two traits that are beautiful in themselves 
considered, yet, being a part of an animal that is not attrac- 
tive, we turn from them in disgust, to find elsewhere objects 
of beauty more in harmony with ourselves. Here we perceive 
why it is said, " It is more blessed to give than to receive." 
The expanded intellect loves to give himself, his own love, 
his own wisdom, in order to do good, or to develop other in- 
dividuals like himself. 

Self-knowledge. 

271. Hence it is, that a knowledge of the fundamental pecu- 
liarity in our nature, is the beginning of all real mental culture. 
I must know myself, study myself, discipline myself. Must 
know, not merely what I am, but in v^hat respects I differ 
from all others. There are, there can be, no two precisely 
alike. In the number of our elements we are alike ; as we 
are in the fact of our individuality. But, then, in our tastes, 
in our peculiar views and feelings, how widely different. 

The inmost individuality can be known to no other intelli- 
gence but yourself. God knows all. But, there is that in 
the individuality which no other, either can, or has any right 
to know. We have seen that disembodied spirits even can- 
not know it. (245.) Clairvoyants cannot know it ; it belongs 
to your selfhood. It is an insane idea when one individual 
assumes to read another's inmost thoughts, to the extent some 
have done. We have shown how the externals of one's 
thoughts may be seen by intuition, in some very rare cases, 
(160 — 170) but in such instances, it is done by the consent of 
the person examined. At any rate, it is not in the power, 
does not come within the province, or sphere of one individual 



376 BOOK OF HUMAN NATURE. 

to enter into, and take possession of that which constitutes the 
selfhood of another. The individualism may sometimes be 
so low, the nervous system become so much deranged by dis- 
ease, or by "possession," or, by its being controlled by 
another, that its property may be, so to speak, lost. I have 
known cases where persons had so given themselves up to the 
influence of " mesmerism," and to being " magnetized by 
spirits," as they called it, that their individuality seemed to 
be very much reduced. In this way they lose their self- 
hood for a time. But it is an evil to be guarded against 
in all efforts for the culture of the human mind. 

The individuality, or, the idiosyncrasy (153) must be 
studied and understood, in order to make the wisest choice in 
all the conduct of life. That profession, that occupation will 
be the best for you that is chosen in view of this germ. So, 
of the means for intellectual culture. What do you most love ? 
What is your highest desire? What would make you the 
most happy, if you could realize your own wishes 1 Is that 
high? Is it ennobling? Would it make you like the model 
man? Would you respect yourself, the more, a century 
hence, if you should succeed in that desire ? Thus one should 
enter into himself, see himself, know himself. Examine the 
tools you have to work with. Estimate the strength and the 
skill you can bring to their use. Determine from time to 
time, what extrinsic aid you may need, and look around you 
to ascertain where that aid can be found. In what books? 
What society ? What pursuits ? What labors ? What 
amusements ? What is the best direction for you ? You 
want to know, not merely how others have been assisted in 
like circumstances, but you may need what no other ever did. 
Nay, you may find in that sanctum into which I have re- 
quested you to enter for self-examination, powers, means, that 
will enable you to do what no other mortal ever did. In that 
mysterious germ we are now considering, were originated the 
ideas which resulted in all the inventions of mechanism, all 
the improvements, all the lights of science and art. The 
mysteries of daguerreotyping, the wonders of House's printing 
telegraph, (one of the wonders of the age) were found in that 
very centre. It was there, that steam, and now, the superior 
facilities of caloric, as a motive power, were found. Had 
those mortals whose names are immortalized by these inven- 
tions, never entered into themselves, and consulted what they 
found there, these wonderful discoveries would never have 
been made by them. 

See, then, what an individual can do ; see, what he has 
done. In science and art, how like God his maker, has he 
developed those hidden laws which control the outer forms of 



I 



MANSCIENCE. 877 

matter, and subjected them to the purposes of mind. And, 
the whole world of causes, is accessible in the developments 
of this little germ. Observe, I say, in its developments. 
When you enter yourself, do not stay there. Do not shut 
yourself up, like the turtle, and remain eternally obscured and 
circumscribed within your own selfhood. Come out at the 
proper time, show yourself, exhibit what you found in that 
innermost, if so be you may attract others thereby. You are 
attracted by what you taste of other individualities, let others 
taste of you. Intelligent beings feast on something besides 
dead carcasses, they eat, they receive, and " inwardly digest," 
not merely that which conserves the outer form. This giving 
and receiving in the higher forms of intelligence is intellectual 
culture, and we have now seen the object on which it is to be 
bestowed. Thus we have laid the foundation. Self-love is 
the germ. " Thou shalt love thy neighbor, as thyself." 

" All that I ain, I am from Thee, 
All that I have, I had from Thee. 
I do not think that Thou art far 
Away. Nay, where Thou art, we are." 

The Conjugal. 

272. Upon the maturity of the sexes, or, as they approach 
and enter that degree of development we denominate manhood, 
they approximate into the conjugal, which is typefied as we 
have seen by the union of the Divine Love and Wisdon. (60.) 
This, like each of the Relations of Life, is developed from 
the elements of man's nature. It is not artificial, is not for- 
tuitous, and hence, when once formed, cannot be dissolved. 
Can man's relation to God be dissolved ? Can his indivi- 
duality be destroyed 1 Can the relation of parent and child, 
of brother and sister be destroyed ? "A brother offended may 
be hard to be won," bat, as to the relation which makes 
brothers, it is eternal, and can no more be annihilated than the 
original individuality itself. 

Marriage. 

273. This term signifies more of the artificial. It is a 
mere ceremony, which varies with the usages and tastes of 
society. The conjugal relation is beyond and deeper, far, 
than all conventionalisms, all human laws, which result from 
observation. Hence, I do not speak here, merely of those 
legal or external enactments and ceremonies which attach to 
this term. The conjugal, or conjugial, union of the two 
sexes, constitutes the highest form of marriage ; and where 
this takes place, it is manifest that nothing, internal or exter- 
nal in nature can essentially interfere with it. The subject is 



878 BOOK OF llUAfAN NATURE. 

here proposed for the purpose of ascertaining, if possible, what 
constitutes a true marriage V And whether under any, and 
what conditions, divorces may ever take place. 

1. We observe, then, that the Essence of the Divine, is 
male and female. And, it is by the absolutely harmonious 
Union, and co-operation of these elements, that nature has 
been evolved. Human nature, therefore, like all else in the 
constitution of things, must be male and female. From this 
necessity has come that union of the two sexes which we call 
marriage. It grows out of the very elements of our nature, 
and can no more be annihilated, than the love of parents or 
children. 

2. If the sexuality of the Divine Elements be the true 
foundation of marriage, then it must follow, that, that only is 
the highest form of marriage, where the union is formed be- 
tween one Man and one Woman, not between one male and a 
number of females. Reasoning from analogy, the relation ol 
conjugality can no more be double than the filial relation can 
be so. The inherent domestic relations are all single, they 
cannot be plural. A son cannot be born of two mothers ; a 
child can have but one real father, and, as the relation is 
single between the offspring and the parent, so, there can be 
but one real, conjugal relation between one man and one 
woman. It has been suggested, that there may be distinct 
mental organs for conjugal love ; but this does not appear. 
Are there separate mental faculties for fraternal love, or pater- 
nal love 1 

If, then, all the relations correspond, they have the same 
foundation, they can never be doubled, nor annihilated, and 
hence the distinction to be made between the conjugal rela- 
tion and the mere external ceremony by which its existence is 
recognized. 

Polygamy. 

274. Hence it is that in nature, and the inherent relations 
of the social state, there is, there can be no reasons for poly- 
gamy. And this view is confirmed by the fact, that no 
reasons are ever adduced by civilized sectarians, who practice 
polygamy, — they do not pretend to give any higher authority 
lor their discordant and low practices, than the writings of 
Moses, or the Old Testament! The God of tlie Jews, thev 
say, authorized it three thousand years ago ; and this same 
God authorizes it now ! Yes, this God authorized a parent to 
put his own child to death ; the killing of a man for gathering 
a few sticks on a particular day in the week ; he commanded 
one to be put to death, who even came near his tabernacle. 
And, an honor, indeed, it must be for " a saint" to practice 



MAN SCIENCE. 879 

polygamy under the permission and sanction of such a God as 
this ! The same authority authorizes slavery, monarchy, 
bigotry, and other evils all peculiar to a state of ignorance and 
imperfection. There are, then, considerations growing out of 
men's inmost nature, against polygamy and polyandry : — • 

(I.) It is practised, only among those nations that are 
scarcely civilized, or, w^ho, like the ancient Jevi's, are not 
much advanced in a knowledge of God, or the laws of nature. 
It is never found among the cultivated, the intelligent and 
elevated portions of society. Fanatics, ignorant sectarians, 
deluded visionaries practice it, and they quote "revelations" 
from an ignorant imperfect God, as their authority for so 
doing 

(2./ The inherent relations of life cannot be double. Indi- 
vidual sovereignty appertains to both sexes alike. True mar- 
riage, or the conjugal relation,' is the permanent union of two, 
and only two individualities of different sexes. Polygamy, 
therefore, is a sin against the sovereignty of individuality ; 
which no chicanery founded on " revelations," ancient or 
modern, can evade or set aside. That females are now found 
willing, to surrender their sovereignty in becoming the asso- 
ciates of a bigamist, is not strange at all. Who are those 
females'? Why, such as have been drilled and schooled into 
the angular systems of bigotry and sectarianism. No female 
who has grown into the fully developed sphere of Woman- 
hood, and who has a just conception of her individual sove- 
reignty, would consent to such a life.. Or, ^ she did, she 
would not consider it, in any sense of the word, a true mar- 
riage, or a real conjugial union. 

(3.) All the analogies of nature and the relations of life, are 
against polygamy. We have seen that this relation springs 
from the union of the Divine Love, and the Divine Wisdom. 
Now, we know that there are not, and cannot be, two, three, 
or more elements of Love, for one of Wisdom. There is but 
one of each, and in the Divine order Love isfirst — hence Love 
is before Wisdom. It is more important that Man should be 
good, than that he should be wise. But the order in which 
the Divine elements are developed, show how the social state 
is constituted, when it is arranged according to the higher dic- 
tates of Wisdom. Hence, it shows a low degree of intellec- 
tual culture, when mortals form relations in life for which 
ihey can give no higher reason, than that somebody else did 
so three thousand years ago, or that somebody said that God 
said they might do so and so ! W^ith such reasons, an evenly 
balanced mind can never be satisfied. 

Nor can the harmonious mind be satisfied by being told that 
promiscuous sexual intercourse must be right, because it is 



880 BOOK OF HUMAN NATUKE. 

acting out the instincts of nature. The highest instincts of 
man's nature are in the dictates of an enlightened intelligence. 
Is there no instinct in Wisdom 1 No instinct in superior Rea- 
son ? And when is man allied to the animals who are below 
him, if it be not in those acts which flow from his lower 
instincts, witiiout the control of Reason ? Those individuals, 
therefore, who take these low views of Manhood, give but a 
poor exhibition of their capacity as teachers and leaders of the 
human race. 

True Marriage. 

275. Marriage cannot be contracted between members of 
the same family, nor between persons of unsuitable ages. 
Consequently, when children and youth are bound together 
by any means, under the name of marriage, such connections 
can no more make the two really " man and wife," than they 
could create the relation of parent and child, without the pre- 
vious developments and processes of nature. 

In the order of Nature, the Wisdom element is devel- 
oped before the faculty of conjugal love. Hence it is mani- 
fest that no real marriage can be consummated where the ma- 
tured judgment of both the parties has not only been consulted 
but followed in the choice. The presumption is, therefore, 
that when persons follow the impulses of their lower nature, 
or when they imagine that their marriage was made in hea- 
ven ages befoi% they were born, they thus evince their want 
of progression, and their unfitness for realizing what is meant 
by conjugial love. 

As it is certain that this is one of the very highest facul- 
ties in man's nature, it would seem, for this reason, in cor- 
respondence with all true analogy, to be the last to become 
fully developed. The stomach is developed before birth, and 
so is the heart ; and. in their order, the external senses fol- 
low, after birth» as do each of the corresponding mental or- 
gans. We suppose, maturity in the reasoning faculties, and 
the harmonious development of the whole mental and physical 
organism, are necessary, always ; and where marriages are 
contracted without these conditions, they must prove imperfect 
and unsatisfactory. 

Real marriage or conjugial union is that relation between 
the two sexes which increases with age. It is natural and 
spontaneous as the pulsations of life ; it is a oneness of the 
two, which constitutes the most pure, delightful, spiritual feli- 
city, which comes within the capacity of the Race to 
enjoy. 



I 



MAN SCIENCE. S81 

Divorce. 

276. But suppose the externals of marriage have been con- 
tracted, which prove to be unsatisfactory 1 The answer has 
been anticipated above. There is no real marriage without 
harmonious conjugality. The conjugal aft'ection is reciprocal. 
If, therefore, it be found to be deficient, and does not iftcrease 
with time, the best rule for both parties is — " Contentment for 
the past, gratitude for the present, and hope for the future." 
Nothing should ever be done to render either party unhappy, 
Superior wisdom never speaks of the past, so as to produce 
discontentment ; if the past be referred to, it is only to excite 
present gratitude, or hope for time to come. It is always 
safe to consult superior wisdom. If you omitted this before, 
you need not do so again. This is always a safe Oracle. 
Consult it, and you will not be so likely to augment your 
misery, if you cannot at present wholly obviate it. And, 
where there is no issue, the difficulty may be adjusted cer- 
tainly by mutual consent. But where the parties find them- 
selves parents, and without conjugal love, what then ? Here 
they sustain, as parents, a relation to their children which 
can never be dissolved. No divorce, no decree of any 
earthly tribunal,, can ever dissolve this relation which ex- 
ists between the natural pajents and their children. We 
must, therefore, pause ere giving advice which must neces- 
sarily interfere with the parental and filial, even when the 
conjugal relation is merely artificial. 

As to the moral fitness of divorce, where there is no mutual 
conjugial love, there can be no doubt at all. And, so of the 
moral fitness of marriage between eligible parties, as we have 
seen, one matured man, and one matured wofnan. In respect 
to parties being married the second time, in real conjugal love, 
it may well be doubted whether such an event could take 
place. Not, but that persons are often, properly married a 
second or even the third time, who live in harmony and assist 
each other in the great work of spiritual culture. It is not 
perceived that the Divine philosophy interposes any objection 
against the repetition of marriage when all the conditions are 
fulfilled that are suggested in the exercise of a matured judg- 
ment. In such cases, the object is intellectual culture, both 
for parents and children, and all consistent means for its attain- 
ment, may, and should be used when pointed out by superior 
wisdom. 

And thus, while the elements of the Divine, and all the 
analogies of the natural and spiritual worlds point to the con- 
jugial relation as the highest to be gained in the whole range 
of eternal progression, soj is man called upon to exercise the 



382 BOOK OF HUMAN NATURE. 

highest faculties of his higher nature in its formation, and 
never to turn from the admonitions of superior wisdom in his 
endeavors to avoid the bitter mischiefs which come to pass 
from the union of the sexes, where real conjugial love is 
wanting.* 

It may be conceded, that the arrangements of society in re- 
spect to this relation which have been adopted in preceding 
ages have been the best under all the circumstances of the 
case that could have been done. They were, probably, the 
mere promptings of man's conjugal nature for its own good. 
The laws, the ceremonies, the restrictions and penalties, all 
tend but to show the want of progression in the race. 

Celibacy. 
211. The wisdom element being imperfectly developed, 
took low and incorrect views of this, as it did of all other sub- 
jects. At one time, it allows of a plurality of wives. At 
another, it forbids the conjugal relation and allows of no mar- 
riage at all. But this prohibition, or voluntary refusal of mar- 
riage, is the legitimate fruit of sectarianism, the same as we 
have seen polygamy to have been : — 

1. As marriage and the conjugal relation spring out of the 
inmost instincts of man's nature, it must, "thence, be consi- 
dered a Divine institution in as high a sense as any thing ap- 
pertaining to the social state can be said to be divine. Those 
forms of sectarianism, therefore, which interfere with it and 
prevent marriage, either by precept or example, or by teaching 
it as inexpedient and inconsistent with the .higher degrees of 
holiness, do thus sin against God ; and the higher laws he has 
implanted in man's higher nature. Indeed, it would, perhaps, 
be correct to say, that the conjugal relation is in the order of 
God, the highest because it is the nearest to the Divine ; it is 
that relation out of which each of the others are developed. 
To deny this relation, therefore, or to sin against its duties 
and blessings, is a crime against man's highest good, and against 
God, its author, which ought never to be committed 

2. Celibacy, is not, and cannot, in the nature of things, be 
the best condition for the race, nor for any one class of them. 
That which is best for the whole, must be best for all the 
individuals of which the whole is composed. And thus, in 
circumventing and preventing the conjugal relation, by which 
alone the race is to be conserved, and developed, sectarianism 
is a crime against nature, and against God and the highest 
good of the whole human race. It is this same sectarianism 

* Kead Swedenborg on this subject. 



MAN SCIENCE. 383 

that cruelly requires the wife to be immolated upon the funeral 
pile of her husband ; and its requisitions are as reasonable in 
the one case as in the other. In all cases, it is an unsafe 
guide ; it interferes with nature, and the laws of God, and 
never so much as when it puts its uncouth hands upon the 
sacred relations of life. 

Correct Views, 

278. At all ages of the world, when and where the social 
state has been developed into civil government, the laws have 
imposed certain restrictions upon the sexes, and sometimes in- 
flicted severe penalties for their violation. At present we 
seem to be approaching a period when it is beginning to be 
seen and felt more than formerly, that human laws cannot 
make a real marriage ; and what they cannot make they can- 
not of course destroy. It is a serious question how far the 
laws of society may interfere with this relation at all. That 
they should take cognisance of it, the same as they do of the 
relation between parent and child, is plain. And where par- 
ties assume that association which makes them parents, it is 
not denied, but that society may take cognisance of this fact, 
and protect itself from the evils that seem likely to follow. 
But, more than this, perhaps society is not now called upon 
to do. 

The conjugial relation, like the parental, filial, and fraternal, 
being from the inherent elements of Humanity, is therefore, 
perfectly natural. Marriage may indeed, be artificial, but the 
real conjugal relation is never artificial nor temporary. It can 
never be dissolved. So the natural relation of parent and child 
can never be merely temporary, it is eternal, and can never be 
broken up. It must be so. All those relations, which are 
found in Manhood, all that grow out of his nature, all that 
necessarily appertain to the conservation and perpetuation of 
the race, existed before society and human laws. Laws did 
not create them ; they cannot be annihilated by laws. To 
avoid, therefore, the difficulties that may have heretofore 
beset this subject, we have only to obtain and diffuse correct 
views of manhood. By becoming perfect men and perfect 
WOMEN ourselves, harmonious influences will flow fortii from 
us. Our offspring after us, sharing in the general advance- 
ment, begin life higher up in the scale of progression. Born 
with less disease, and commencing with more spiritual and 
physical harmony, they spontaneously outgrow the evils of 
previous ages as they do the garments of their childhood. 

The issue of artificial marriages, must be liable to dis- 
cordant organizations. Hence it becomes a glorious ambition 
of those who love progression, to originate a healthy, har- 



884 BOOK OF HUMAN NATURE. 

monious offspring : to see themselves even improved, beauti- 
fied, and advanced in ages of the future, in a generation of 
evenly developed, well governed, intelligent minds; united as 
one Family, worshiping one Father, progressing to one 
Destiny, — Parental, Immortal, and Happy. 

The Parental. 

279. One of the first motions of matured life, is to re- 
produce itself. (38.) This is the tendency of all individualisms, 
and the effort is successful precisely in corresponding degrees 
with the perfection of the organism. This tendency man has 
received from the Divine, As God is Life in Himself, and 
flows into all forms which thus become life, so these forms, 
male and female (39,) attract one another, and thus those 
associations are formed (67,) that become parental and pro- 
ductive of issue. 

It is in the contemplation of these beautiful relations, har- 
moniously developed, that we shall find the sense in which the 
term man-science is to be used ; and the reasons for the illustra- 
tions already given of those ascending forms in which the love 
element is developed. (79, 82-84.) It is only in these relations, 
it must be borne in mind, that the pure love principle is seen. 
Thus we are accustomed to contemplate maternal love as 
one of the very strongest ties of our nature. See, in how 
many forms it appears even in the lower kingdom. Animals, 
the most timid and fearful, often become senseless of all 
danger, and prefer death to the exposure of their offspring. 
See with what sleepless vigilance the mother provides for her 
young, how she even robs herself, and goes hungry for long 
periods of time, if so be her brood are not supplied with food. 
Notice the methods nature has developed for the mutual 
gratification of the mother and her young ; the peculiar sounds j 
(love principle, 126,) by which the wants of animals are made 
known. An ewe will distinguish her own lamb's bleat among a 
thousand, all braying at the same time. Besides the* distin-. 
guishment of voice is perfectly reciprocal between the ewe and 
the lamb, who amid the deafening sound, run to meet each, 
other. So strong is this element, and thus has it provided for 
its own progression in the new forms of life, in which it 
appears, from one development to another. 

And here it is in place to notice how much use man has 
made of his knowledge of this relation, for advancing and im-J 
proving the breeds of animals that are below him. He hasi 
found that by observing certain conditions in respect to age and' 
temperaments, (141-143,) the species become improved so as,] 
to make these conditions a matter of the highest importance to \ 
all who would secure the higher degrees of improvement iri 



MAN SCIENCE. 385 

their stock. A nd by and by, perhaps, men will begin to find 
out what conditions are most favorable for human parents. 
To some of them we have already alluded. 

Important Conditions. 

280. 1. The temperament should be, so to speak, positive 
and negative. This is the reason in nature, for those Jewish 
and other legal enactments against marriage between relatives 
of a certain degree of nearness. The reason is philosophical, 
and founded on a law which must be observed, in order either 
to have any progeny at all, or to secure in them the greatest 
degrees of health, and mental perfection. We have accounts 
of some portions of the human family where this law is violated, 
and dwarfs, and monstrosities are the results, as in the case 
of the Aztec children, lately exhibited through the country. 
These children are said to be from a race, like the Cretians, 
who have become both physically and mentally deteriorated by 
constant inter-marriages. Such objects are not attractive, and 
the use that is made of such imbeciles in parading specimens 
of them about the country is an evidence of the ignorance of 
which complaint is here made. It is not the low, the diminu- 
tive, the imperfect, that the eye should rest upon. There are 
failures enough all around us, blemishes, mistakes enough. 
What we want to see, is some of nature's best and most 
successful efforts. Let us behold a perfect man, a perfect wo- 
rtian, one who is symmetrical, well proportioned, harmoniously 
developed, — mind and body. Could such a pair be found, well 
indeed, might it be for us all to look at them. But, to catch 
up these windfalls of humanity, these slunk children, and 
exhibit them as a matter of curiosity, is a most ignoble and 
unworthy piece of business. One use may, indeed, be made 
of them, and that has already been alluded to. See, from 
these failures, the imperative reasons for studying and obeying 
all nature's laws, in relation to geniture. How paternal, how 
bountiful, how kind, how generous even, nature is, in the 
distribution of her gifts ; how ready, always to reward, 
with a liberal hand, the faithful services of her elevated 
children ; and how she mourns and hides her face from those 
who disregard her precepts. 

2. Correspondence in the ages of parents. It is not suf- 
ficient if the parents are decidedly positive and negative in their 
physical temperaments. This does not mean that there 
should be a wide difference in their ages. Nature puts the 
female first in respect to love, a^d the male first in respect to 
wisdom, or government. Hence the age of the father should 
be above that of the mother. The physical and mental can- 
not te divided. That isj a person cannot be estimati^d correbtty 
• 17 



386 BOOK OF HUMAN NATURE. 

by supposing the mind to be older than the body. The mind 
and body make the man, the woman. Now, nature's highest 
aim in all true marriages should be consulted in view of this 
demand, and those only should put themselves in a relation to 
become parents whose ages correspond, the female a few years 
younger than the male. Where this rule has been overlooked, 
we have accounts of scrofula, and other hereditary diseases 
that have appeared in the offspring as the consequence. 

Physical and mental discords, intellectual qualities, are 
transmitted from parents to children, always. The disease 
may not immediately appear, perhaps, not in infancy, nor 
childhood, nor in riper years. But sooner or later it does 
appear ; even in the third and fourth generation. You may 
not be able to prognosticate with mathematical exactness as to 
the type in which it will appear ; nor, indeed, will an ordinary 
eye be able to detect anyone of the appropriate symptoms, but, 
the discord, the disease, the mental, the parental tendency is 
there in the child, and often grows with his strength,* from 
age to age, as if nature took this method for admonition and 
warning, it being her first and only means for impressing upon 
all parents the necessity of a thorough and practical acquaint- 
ance with her laws. 

3. Another condition which contributes to improvement in 
the offspring is maturity in the parents. Perfection in all 
things. Not a perfect animal, merely, but maturity in mind. 
Neither the greenness of youth, nor the imbecility of age. 
Statistics have recently been published,! which tend to illus- 
trate the importance of this condition. Out of one hundred 
instances of true greatness, but three or four favor very early 
marriage, and in some of these, as in the case of Bonaparte, 
the parents were of extraordinary vigor. The mother of 
Napoleon followed the army in its march up to within a few 
days of his birth, and when her time arrived, it is said, she 
walked home from church, and was her own accoucheur. 

If then, we find that a large majority, as high as seven- 
eighths or more, of all those persons who have been the most 
distinguished in the arts, in oratory, in philosophy and science, 
have come from parents who were fully matured, and, also, at 
that period of life when the body and the mind are in their 
utmost vigor, then what shall we infer ? Do not all want to be 
great or good men ; great and good women ? All would ex- 
cel. All aspire for advancement. And thus we hear nature 
speaking to us through all the past, and all the orators, and all 
., ^ 

* See the Author's " Book of Health," (p. 12,) in which cases are 
stated in illustration of this important principle, 

t Spiritual Philosopher, p. 169. 



MAN SCIENCE. 887 

the great statesmen; and all the philanthropists, of past ages, 
proclaiming her mandates for making great men. And thus, 
what nature teaches parents, — parents must teach their off- 
spring. These precepts are nature's laws, which can never 
be abrogated. The sooner we all learn them the better. The 
more we obey them, the faster we progress ; the more harmo- 
nious, more happy we become. 

Parents often feel and manifest solicitude for the education 
and settlement of their children, that could not be described in 
words. They come up from the element of parental love, 
that is deep, and all-pervading throughout our nature. Here, 
then, is a thought for such. Take hold on these great funda- 
mental laws. Put your soul, your love into them ; or, rather 
suffer them to diffuse your soul through your posterity. The 
primer and the reading lesson are toys compared with these 
divine pearls. They are before all books, before all schools, 
all colleges. These lie at the root, nay, they are the rays 
that beam forth from the only true Koh-i-noor ; and what 
makes them so truly valuable is, they are not confined to the 
crowned heads of the east. They are always present, univer- 
sal, independent, and do their work with unvarying regularity. 
(24.) If it is gratifying then to parental love to educate a 
child, how much more, to improve and cultivate a family, to 
expand and advance a generation, and thus to diffuse yourself 
in ascending circles throughout the unending ages ot the 
future. 

The Filial. 

281.* In this relation we have the correlative of the paternal. 
It is its first perfected motion in the offspring.* As all living 
organisms attract the forms which they evolve, so, they are 
reciprocally attracted by them. (28.) This is a law of all 
derived existence. It arises from the sense it gives of rfe- 
pendence and helplessness. The wants, or loves bf the parents, 
gave the love or life to the offspring. As life begins, it is im- 
perfectly developed, and must be cared for by the superior love 
whence its existence is directly derived. 

Now, we have seen that the love element (79) is the first 
motion in all the physical, mental, and spiritual phenomena, 

* In the 2d vol. of " The Great Harmonia," pp. 136, 143, 144, the 
fraternal is put before the filial ! Can one be a brother, before he is 
born ? The relation to the parents as a son, must be in the order of 
time, before the relation which makes brothers of two ; for there 
must be two born before there can be any fraternal relation. Hence 
the filial must be before the fraternal. Qu., as to whether there bo 
any correspondence to be traced between the members of the human 
hand and foot, and the number of these relations ? 



888 BOOK OF HUMAN NATURE. 

throughout the entire universe of God. All forms of matter 
and mind are developed by love as the first or heat element, 
and by vi-'isdom as the forming governing element. All, all are 
receptive of love, or life ; and all forms of life, attract, and are 
attracted by certain associations or relations, which they hold 
to one another. (36.) Here, then, we find the reason, the 
true foundation for love to the Divine Father of all. Des- 
cended from him, dependent upon him, derived from him ; 
having him developed in us, we love him, in correspondence 
with the degrees in which the motions of our love and wisdom 
elements are perfected in us. This filial relation is a part of 
our inmost nature. All feel this want of paternal protection, 
paternal guidance, paternal love ; that very love which is 
always found in the parental, and, from that up to the Divine. 
Religion, therefore, is but another name for the manifestation 
of this filial relation, which is constituted by our derived ex- 
istence. The parents, as it were, are intermediate between 
God and the child ; and thus the filial love developed in the 
infant as, the intellectual expands, takes cognisance of the 
Divine Father, in proportion as the love faculty is sufficiently 
developed, to give a sense of dependence and want. That 
sense is, more or less, always present in the mind of man. It 
can no more forsake him, than his love for food, or his desire 
for self-preservation. That is the Divine inmost of his nature, 
it is the Divine Father speaking in him. And thus we see 
how all true religion commences in the paternal and filial ; 
how singularly the forms in which the child worships his 
parents, agree with his knowing faculties. And so of all God's 
children, they love Him, they feel the want of Him, they 
search after Him long before they know the name by which 
he should be called. And see how much of infancy, how 
much of childhood, and imperfection the love of the earthly 
father suffers from his tattling offspring. Why not the same 
forbearance from the Great Father of all ? Nay, do we not 
find that this is the state of things in respect to God our 
Father in Heaven. 

Observe, then,* how man often errs, when attempting to 
reason here. He says, " 1 am a mortal, I am finite ; I must 
not judge God by myself. I would not consign a child of my 
own into endless torments. But God is infinite. I must not 
infer, thence, from myself, that God would not, or could not 
do this." 

The fallacy in all this, consists in overlooking the filial relation. 
This must be absolutely between God and a mortal, what 
it is, finitely, between the parent and his child. The relation 
is eternally the same. Hence, it follows with certainty, that 
if God be above the earthly father, in his Paternal Love, this 



MAN SCIENCE. 389 

love must seek the good of the child, in all respects, in a 
sense as much higher than any that could attach to a mortal, 
as God is greater than man. Now, could a good earthly- 
parent inflict vindictive punishment on his own child ? You 
ifnow this could not be done. 

But, I shall be asked, how it can be consistent for God to 
suffer all the evil which I see around me ? I answer, why- 
have you became a parent 1 Why do you bring human beings 
into this world where you know they must suffer 1 Can you 
tell ? Tell me the reasons for your becoming a father of 
miserable children. Is it " a hard question V Indeed it is. 
It is a question which the old theology has been some 
thousands of years in attempting to answer. And we have 
seen the reasons why it has failed to do so. 

Let me entreat the reader not to leave the contemplation of 
this subject, as soon as he has laid aside the book in which this 
idea may have been, perhaps, for the first time forced upo^ his 
mind. Take it with you ; go back into your inmost soul, with 
this investigation. Settle this question at once, now and for 
ever. Have you, in your inmost nature a sense of the filial ? 
Are you dependent 1 All this you know. Then tell me, 
whence this sense of dependence comes, except from that 
source, Human and Divine, whence your existence is derived ? 
If, then, you love your parents you should love God, who is 
their Father, and yours as really as a mortal is father to you. 
As you would then progress, as you would advance, as you 
"would become a true man, see to it, that you act consistently 
with this relation. You may sin against it ; you may become 
so perverted as to imagine that you never had any father, or 
if you had, you do not love, or know him. But, is this the best 
state, the highest good that a son can say of himself? Is such a 
state of things desirable ? And thus, the fallacy may be seen, 
whence men shut out from their higher facilities the idea of God, 
as the Father of all. Ignorance of man himself, the want of 
correct views of his true nature ; no just conceptions of these 
innate relations of life, the mind stumbles, and goes astray. It 
has nothing upon which to lean, no safe guide, outside of these 
relations. And as that relation which has given me life is the 
first to me, so it is the highest, and should receive from all 
the first and most devout attention that is possible to bestow 
upon it. Let me, therefore, press upon you the study of man- 
science. Here you will find the elements of all true greatness, 
all true honor, all that is ennobling to man. Let it be your 
glory, then, not that you do not know your own father, not 
that you have denied a part of your own manhood, but rather, 
that as you advance in age, you become more and more con- 
scious of your true dignity ; and that man is, never was, and 



S90 , BOOK OF HUMAN NATURE. 

never can be, so much a man as when he becomes fully- 
cognisant of his filial obligations, never so worthy of the name 
of MAN as when he makes it his' highest ambition to live 
agreeably to them. If it be desirable to show yourself allied 
to an earthly parent that was great and good, how much mora 
to show yourself, descended in Essence. Form, and Use, from 
the Divine, the Father of all. 

The Fraternal. 

282. In contemplating these relations, it is gratifying to 
perceive the beautiful correspondences that may be traced 
between them all and some element in the Divine, or the 
union of elements which give to each their peculiar traits. 
This determines the relative position which each shall hold in 
the constitution of things. Thus the Conjugal corresponds 
with Beauty, because it is the union from which love or life is 
evolved. The Parental corresponds to Power, because it 
appertains to Government, Form, and Order. The Filial cor- 
responds to Aspiration, because it gives a sense of depend- 
ence, a disposition to worship. And the Fraternal corresponds 
to Justice, because it has respect to equality among individuals 
who are sovereign ; sameness of nature, same parentage, same 
rights, same laws, destiny, the same. 

Fraternity is equality, it is the balance of accounts between 
Love and Wisdom. Justice is that principle of righteousness 
which makes equal, which renders to each individuality its 
dues, all that belongs to it in equity. In a community all 
have rights, which are defined, fixed, and secured by this 
principle. It is founded on the innate, and eternal principle 
of individual sovereignty. The filial relation may exist where 
there is but one individual, but the fraternal is constituted by 
plurality, and plurality makes this principle of justice necessary. 
Were there but one, the principle of justice would not apply. 
But in the unnumbered worlds, kingdoms, spheres, com- 
munities, families, and individuals which make up the universe, 
we see the Divine Goodness, and the Divine Wisdom in this 
principle of Fraternity or Justice, which runs through and 
balances them all, from the least even, up to the highest in the 
spheres above. 

Hence it is, that a brother's or sister's love is so beautiful, 
so divine. The mortal who has never once been warmed with 
its genial influences, whose bosom has never swelled with a 
sister's love, may be said to be unfortunate indeed. In such a 
heart the fountain of pure feeling must flow but sluggishly, if 
indeed, we can suppose it even possible that such an anomaly 
could exist. A sister's endearing smile, is often felt in the 
riper years of manhood. Amid the rougher turmoils and 



MAN SCIENCE. 891 

labors of life, how often has the brother's heart thrilled with 
emotions of the purest joy from the soft melodies of a sister's 
love. 

The kind w^ord, the friendly offices of a brother beloved, 
develops the higher nature, it expands the heart to the com- 
prehension of all that is good in goodness, all that is just in 
justice, all that is wise in wisdom, and carries us upward into 
the harmonies of the spheres above. 

And it may be well to pause here, and contemplate the 
source whence originates the principle of eternal justice. 
Thus the Divine is made manifest, when he develops himself 
in his intelligent creation so as to enable them to comprehend 
those inherent sources whence ai;e developed those fun- 
damental principles of Goodness, Justice, and Truth, which are 
the chief pillars iii the Divine superstructure. Here is har- 
mony. Here is beauty. Here, to behold the infinite variety 
and diversity in all the individualities which combine to make 
up one Grand Man, throughout whom this principle of justice, 
or fraternity, is known to prevail. In this knowledge the 
mind is attracted upward, and expands in love for the pure 
and holy Being, whose kingdom is founded in justice and judg- 
ment. Deprived of this element, how could he be an object 
of trust and confidence 1 No justice, or which is the same, 
no ability to carry on his great design, in perfecting manhood, 
without a conflict between his attributes, how could the race 
be attracted to love such a Being ? Nay, these very discords, 
representing God's mercy and justice in conflict, have evinced 
more than any other misconceptions the infancy of the race, 
and the want of the knowledge to be found in the science now 
under consideration. But this Divine principle pervades the 
entire universe of Being ; it is never absent, never wanting in 
all God's works and ways ; it is inherent in the constitution of 
nature, and must be looked for and found in the fraternal 
relation, which coijstitutes the family of man, one united 
orotherhood. O, this is the Divine charm that holds together 
the system of so many parts. However diversified the spheres, 
however antagonistic the motions of different bodies, however 
many, or complicated their wants may appear to be, this 
Divine principle of eternal justice always present, always 
active, always vigilant for the highest good of all parties, 
determines with unerring equity for all, so that the greatest 
good of each is thus infallibly secured. 

The Universal. 

283. Here we have the expansion of all that has preceded, 
especially of the fraternal, because the whole human family is 
one universe of brothers. And here, too, we perceive again, 



392 BOOK OF HUMAN NATURE. 

the beautiful, the Divine doctrine of degrees and correspond- 
ences. God is the Father, the cause, the centre of all. All 
are derived, and hence dependent upon Him ; all receive life 
and motion from Him. And thus we learn their individual 
sovereignty. Each is independent in its individualism, and 
this, perhaps, is the only sense in which man can be said to be 
absolutely free. Because we see that each, and all the worlds 
in the universe sustain certain necessary relations to each 
other, so that neither of them could be dispensed with in the 
whole of the great system. Each of the kingdoms are neces- 
sary in their place, and sustain a necessary fraternal relation 
with one another. The same is true, also, of nations. When 
a number of the human family become individualized, so as to 
form one complete national organism, separate and distinct 
from all others, then they thus become a nation. Now, we 
have seen what constitutes man (70,) an individual sovereign. 
The organism is perfected so as to have a sufficient number of 
faculties for its own conservation. The horse is not indivi- 
dualized. All mere animals fall below individual sovereignty ; 
as do children, idiots, and the insane. But man becomes a 
sovereign because he possesses a sufficient number of mental 
faculties (lesser men) who are joined and compacted together, 
in one indissoluble union ; and this union, or individualism, is 
capable of self-control, self-government. See then, how man 
excels all else in the universe of God. 

So, when any number of men join and form a large individual, 
the nation so constituted becomes sovereign, in the same way 
that one human being does ; and hence the compact, the 
nation becomes perfect, and is capable of self-control, when its 
faculties or organs (corresponding with the human organism,) 
are perfectly balanced. Nations are not only composed of 
men, women, and children, but they are constituted in precisely 
the same way that a human organism is constituted ; and 
hence it is, and must be, that they are affected with all those 
internal and external discords, imbecilities, imperfections, 
childishness, combativeness, and error, peculiar to the child 
and the full grown man. The perfection of the compact or, 
the organism, determines its durability the same as in the' 
human body, and the same law of conservation prevents a dis- 
solution. As it is said : — i 

" For the body (human body, social or national,) is not one 
member, but many. If the foot shall say. Because I am not 
the hand, I am not of the body ; is it therefore not of the body ? 
And if the ear shall say. Because I am not the eye, I am not 
of the body ; is it not therefore of the body 1 If the whole 
body were an eye, where were the hearing? If the whole 
were hearing, where were the smelling "? But now hath God 



MAN SCIENCE. 893 

set the members every one of them in the body, as it hath 
pleased him. And if they were all one member, where were 
the body ? But now are they many members but one body. 
And the eye cannot say unto the hand, I have no need of thee ; 
nor again the head to the feet, I have no need of you. Nay, 
much more, those members of the body which seem to be 
more feeble, are necessary.""* 

We have seen what harmony, what goodness and justice (249) 
centre in the model man ; and now if we can appreciate what 
would combine to make the human organism symmetrical, 
beautiful, healthy, all that could tend to make it subserve the 
purposes of manhood, we may understand what is necessary to 
make the social state, or a nation, what it may and should be 
always. Not an invalid, not a dwarf, not a monster, even. 
How would it look to see a man with a huge body and a small 
head ; large stomach and little brains ! An organism with 
arms and hands of a giant, and eyes not larger than those of a 
mole ! And, yet, it is into such ugly forms as these that 
social compacts are often pushed by the force of circumstances 
that render thetn monsters of gluttony, force, and oppression, 
disgusting even to contemplate. 

But, here, in these individualities of kingdoms, nations, 
families, societies, circles, spheres and men, it is that we have 
the expansion of fraternal love, the development of self-love, 
conjugal love, paternal, and the jfilial. This makes liberty and 
fraternity, " one and inseparable, now and forever." As it 
prevails, the selfishness, combativeness and destructiveness of 
childhood pass away, as these traits have continued to do 
from the beginning. If we consult the history of the race, we 
shall find that in all wars, all kingdoms, and all those arrange- 
ments that were purely national, there have been regular and 
consecutive transitions, as nations from the low combative to 
the higher combative, in which more art was used ; from this 
to the cunning, or the lower use of the understanding ; thence, 
up to the defensive, and the utilitarian ; and from this to the 
present which is more characterized by justice and equality. 
A higher degree remains to be reached, in which reason, in- 
telligence, and benevolence shall govern in all the civil and 
national enactments of the whole human race. In such a state 
of society, combativeness is either dispensed with entirely in 
governing, or it holds a very low and subordinate place. It 
never should take the lead in any system of government over 
intelligent beings. It may be appropriate for animals and 
wild beasts of prey. 



* 1. Cor. 12 : 14. 

17* 



894 BOOK OF HUMAN NATURE. 

And thus we see God in all things. How, and in what 
sense, He develops Himself through the successive unfold- 
ings of the human individuality, and the social state. Thus 
we hear His voice in all the relations of life, and find Him the 
inmost of our nature. We see, how low and very much want- 
ing in correct views of the Divine, those sectarians are, who 
assume and teach it as a virtue to resist and subdue the har- 
monious instincts of our nature. They tell us we must sub- 
due nature, must " crucify nature !" How so ? Why, by 
resisting God in that nature ; by acting inconsistently with 
self-love, conjugal love! Without self-love we cannot love 
our neighbor. Without conjugal love, there could not be self- 
love, and thus it is that we find each of these relations are 
necessary to make one harmonious whole, one man, one 
woman. The true gospel of God, therefore does not teach 
violence to either of nature's harmonious instincts ; it rather 
invites their indulgence ; for in this manner is our nature per- 
fected into the image of the Divine, which we are told consists 
in righteousness and true holiness. 

• In the fulfilment of all these relations, the complicated anta- 
gonisms of commerce are superceded by equity, and attractive 
industry ; and virtue blooms with an immortal beauty through- 
out all the conduct of life. Nation shall not lift up the sword 
against nation any more. The strong shall not oppress the 
weak, every man shall be to man, a brother : — 

" The wilderness and the solitary place shall be cultivated, 
and the desert shall rejoice and blossom as the rose. Then the 
eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall 
be unstopped. Then shall the lame leap as an hart, and the 
tongue of the dumb sing ; for in the wilderness shall waters 
break out, and streams in the desert. And the parched ground 
shall become a pool, and the thirsty land springs of water ; 
in the habitations where each lay, grass with reeds and rushes. 
And an high way shall be there, and it shall be called the way 
of holiness ; the unclean shall not pass over it, but way-faring 
men, though fools, shall not err. No lion shall be there, nor 
ravenous beast shall go up thereon, but the redeemed shall 
walk. And the ransomed of the Lord shall return and come 
to Zion with songs, and everlasting joy upon their heads ; 
they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing 
shall flee away." 

We have now examined each of these relations out of which 
spring the duties and joys of life ; and in contemplating them, 
it is gratifying to perceive their beauty, and harmony in which 
they have been arranged by that wisdom which is, also, 
Divine. For, it will be seen, that they are not only dual, 
arranged in pairs, but they each correspond in their essence, 



I 



MAN SCIENCE. 895 

form, and use. Thus, they begir, and end in God. He is 
all, and in all, the first and the last ; one Divine Father of all ; 
one origin ; one nature ; (dual, male and female) one law of 
relations ; (mutual as, paternal and filial) and one destiny by 
association and progression from infancy to manhood, from dis- 
cord to harmony, now and forever : — 

GOD, 

EXTERNAL, INTERNAL, INMOST. 
SELF LOVE, 

ESSENCE, FORM, USE. 

CONJUGAL LOVE, 

SYMMETRY, PERFECTION, BEAUTV. 

PARENTAL LOVE, 

WISDOM, POWER, GOVERNMENT. 

FILIAL LOVE, 

FAITH, HOPE, ASPIRATION. 

FRATERNAL LOVE, 

SOVEREIGNTY, EQUALITY, JUSTICE. 

UNIVERSAL LOVE, 

ASSOCIATION, HARMONY, HEAVEN. 

GOD, 

natDkal, spiritual, celestial. 

Such, then, is the mysterious source whence come all that 
is beautiful, truthful and good ; all that is Divine, all that 
rriakes manhood, happiness and heaven. Here are the sources 
of inspiration, here the pages of God's Living Book, in which 
his will is written. Here are the great teachers of the 
human race, who are to be consulted, always and everywhere, 
as we would know what the Divine will is, and find omx 
greatest joy in its fulfilment. 



896 BOOK OF HUMAN NATURE. 



Virtue. 

284. The question is often asked, both by Christians and 
skeptics, what is virtue- 1 What is vice ? What is the real 
foundation of virtue? What constitutes obhgation to right- 
eousness 1 Questions these which are not answered satisfac- 
torily by the old theology, nor by any dogmas of skepticism, 
technically so called, whether old or new. The mind is not 
satisfied, when told that we should do so and so, because it is 
the will of God ; or because the Bible says so. Is truth any 
more true by being found within the lids of any book"? And, 
as to what God has said, where shall his utterances be 
found 1 Where but in his works, in nature, in man ; in those 
very relations which constitute the social state as we have 
seen, which make individuals, families, and nations. Is it not 
in these very relations that man first perceives his duty 1 
Does it not begin in filial love ? The infant which derived its 
existence from the mother, becomes conscious of its depend- 
ence, as one of the first mental motions that mark the deve- 
lopment of mind : — 

" As loftiest mountains catch the earliest light, 
Till, by degrees, the lowest plains grow bright, 
So dawns the truth upon the greatest minds, 
Before the thought the lower mortal finds." 

At first the parent is to the child in the place of God. In 
the earlier ages, the parent's authority over even the life of the 
child was believed to be absolute, and hence it was, that they 
were put to death in cases of stubbornness and disobedience. 
As society has advanced, this relation becomes better under- 
stood, and as man now perceives more accurately his relation 
to the Divine, so the parental and filial become more clearly 
defined and understood as being the Germ of all virtue, the 
foundation of moral obligation to God, to be good, just, vir- 
tuous. Here is a reason for righteousness which the human 
mind can appreciate, it grows out of the inmost elements of 
our nature, it is a part of our very life and being. We cannot 
be separated from it. We cannot throw it off. It is fate. It 
is co-existent with humanity. And, we have seen, how 
directly these relations are traced back to the Divine ; in what 
sense God is Father of all ; all sustain the relation of filial to 
Him. But then, it is said, we do not see God, do not know 
who or where He is. No, we are now in the external world, 
we are superficial, w^e do not go back to the inmost of our 
nature, which is God. But this we can do. We can per- 
ceive the relations we sustain to one another. Now the love 
^hat you feel for your parent is not voluntary at all ; that is, 



VIRTUE. 897 

if we use the term volition, to signify here, what is commonly 
meant hy it. You do choose to love your parents, because 
your love is but another name for your will. Your highest 
love is your strongest volition. Can you cease to love your 
mother, father ? Not at all ; no more than you can cease to 
be their child. This you know. Here, then, you find the 
REASON, the obligations for virtue. They are not fanciful, not 
arbitrary, not conventional. They are inherent, unvarying, 
independent and eternal. All our conduct, all our thoughts, 
all our words, all our actions, now and for ever must corres- 
pond with each of the social relations. No matter what your 
views may be of God, no matter whether you admit the use 
of this term or not, you are a human being ; you are a child, 
you are dependent upon parental direction, and guidance. 
You have, in your inmost nature, the love of these social rela- 
tions, and hence, it is virtue to fulfil them all. Act them out, 
one and all, in harmony. Such is virtue, and such are the 
reasons on which its practice is founded. 

Goodness. 

285, Penetrating to the inmost of Nature, we are able to ob- 
tain the most satisfactory definitions ; we thus obtain answers 
to our queries and wants with which we become perfectly satis- 
fied and happy. Is there any virtue that is not comprehended 
under one of these three terms — Goodness, Justice, Integrity ? 
We have been told that the term good is from God, because it 
signifies that which is from or like God. But, this does not 
help those who do not know God, or who have but imperfect 
conceptions of his elements or character. 

But the child can understand its love ? He knows his love 
for his parents. Now, tell him that goodness is the gratifica- 
tion of that love. That is, what the child does in order to 
gratify filial love, is good. Goodness, therefore, is whatever 
is done to gratify the love we feel for another. It is the 
fruits, or the work, of love. 

Thus we see what is meant when we speak of the goodness 
of God. Observe what he does for others to gratify his love 
towards them, or rather, his love in them. His goodness gives 
us life, to gratify his love ; his goodness gives all else, that 
feeds and gratifies our nature, all that tends to carry us for- 
ward into a spiritual and happy life. The imperfections and 
miseries of human nature, no more prove any want of good- 
ness in God, than the sufferings of the infant prove the want 
of love or goodness in the parent. Is it said the parent would 
prevent the sufferings of the infant if he could 1 Ah, and how 
so 1 Would the vnse parent prevent the infancy ? If he did 
not, how could he prevent the suffering 1 Imperfection, igno- 



898 BOOK OF HUMAN NATURE. 

ranee, discord, suffering, are inseparable from infancy. Infan- 
cy is impossible without these ; progression is not possible, ex- 
cept from a state of infancy, in which all these conditions are 
included. 

Who are they, then, that blame God for human misery 1 
Who are the children that do not know their own parents, that 
find fault with the kindest of Fathers ? There is, then, there 
can be, no more difficulty in reconciling the infancy, ignorance 
and sufferings of the Race, with the Infinite love and goodness 
of the Divine Father, than there is in reconciling the igno- 
rance and misery of an infant with the love and goodness of 
the parents who have given it life and being. We have, then, 
only to become satisfied that God is an Infinite Father, and it 
follows that the gift of Life from him must be, in all cases, 
without one single exception, an act of goodness. It is what 
he does to gratify his love of Individual Intelligences, like 
himself. The existence of such life cannot be an absolute 
evil. This is an absurdity. It is inconsistent with the rela- 
tion which a derived existence sustains with Infinite Love and 
Wisdom. As he did not lack the Love, so he did not lack 
the Goodness, necessary to bring me into being. And, pos- 
sessing the Wisdom which points out the appropriate means 
for my progression and subsequent happiness, they must be 
used by his Omnipotence, because thus his Love is gratified. 
" So the Fates ordain." We have not blind Fate, but the 
Infinite Intelligence, Power, and Love of the Divine Father, 
which secures with greater certainty than was ever fixed by 
Fate, the progressive existence and eternal felicity of every 
one of his intelligent creation. 

Here, then, all is plain, all is harmonious, all is beautiful 
and good. See, how you are to measure the degrees of your 
own goodness. What do you do, to develop your own na- 
ture 1 Or, in other words, what do you most love 1 and how 
much ? The higher your love, the higher your works to gra- 
tify it. We have seen how it begins in the infant. Even 
there it is beautiful. As low and imperfect as it always must 
be in childhood, yet even down there it is appropriate, mixed 
as it must be with much ignorance, misconception and pain. 
But, all that the child does consistently, (mark this word,) or 
corresponding with its relations ; all that is done to gratify its 
love of parents, brothers, sisters, is goodness ; it is religion, 
the religious element in the chijd. So in the higher forms. 
All that one does for the development or mental culture of an- 
other, is his manifestation of goodness. If it be in advice, in 
the gift of earthly good, in a sermon, a lecture, prayer, hope, 
wish, expressed or implied, it is as if the individual were to say, 



VIRTUE. 899 

" that is the measure of my goodness ; T can go so far, no 
farther." 

And here we perceive how it is, that all that is included 
in the terms of gratitude, gentleness, kindness, affability, sua- 
vity, sweetness of temper, come from the element of Love, 
in goodness of character, in the fulfilment of the various re- 
lations of life ; and, also, how and why it is that certain con- 
duct is rough, cruel, tyrannical, oppressive, repulsive. It is 
inconsistent with the social relations ; it shows little conjugal, 
parental, filial, fraternal, or universal Love. Goodness feeds 
these loves ; it does for them what the parent does for the 
infant, what the lover does always. He gratifies his own love 
by gratifying the love of another. Thus we see the vice, the 
wrong of suicide, murder, slander, or whatever is done against 
life, against the love of progress, harmony, and the develop- 
ment of man's higher nature ; why it is wrong to inflict pain 
in any case from a love of the vindictive. There is no rela- 
tion in life, no element in nature, which authorizes the vindic- 
tive. But there are elements and relations in Human Nature, 
which authorize the exercise of all those laws which tend to 
harmony, to development and progression. What good can 
you do another, if it be not in helping him forward? In 
his information *? His mental growth 1 His intellectual cul- 
ture ? 

As Love is developed in corresponding degrees, so is its 
manifestation in Goodness. We have the higher and the lower 
forms. Among the former we put charity, mercy, or alms, and 
forgiveness. " Forgive us, as we forgive." O, that is just, 
that is beautiful, that is a higher degree of goodness. A rare 
sight it may be indeed, but nevertheless it is the more attrac- 
tive and beautiful to behold. " As ye would that others should 
do unto you, do ye even so to them." No wonder that a sen- 
timent so divine found development even before the days of 
Jesus, in the heart of a heathen. So distinctly has the Di- 
vine spoken, " at sundry times and in divers manners," in ages 
past, thus enforcing the higher life, the higher good. Forgive, 
as you would be forgiven. If asked the reason why, the an- 
swer is at hand. It is the gratification of your higher nature. 
It is the greater, the greatest good to exercise — the greater, 
the greatest love, because thus our nature is most perfected, 
and the greatest happiness secured. This is moral purity, ho- 
liness, and heaven. So truly has it been said that the tear of 
sympathy never falls in vain. It waters and fertilizes the 
soil of the most sterile heart, and causes it to flourish with 
the beautiful flowers of gratitude and love. And as the sum- 
mer clouds weep refreshment on the parched earth, and leave 
the sky more beautiful than before, with the rainbow of pro- 



400 BOOK OF HUMAN NATURE. 

mise arching in the cerulean dome, so the tear of sympathy 
not only refreshes the heart on which it drops, but it ele- 
vates and beautifies the nature of him from whom it springs. 
A sympathizing heart is a spring of pure water bursting forth 
from the mountain side. Ever pure and sweet in itself, it car- 
ries gladness and joy on every ripple of its sparkling current. 

Justice. 

286. That principle of right, which makes even, equitable, 
between two individuals, or more. It is founded on goodness, 
because all that tends to make things right helps on in the 
great work of progression. And where there is more than 
one, made up as individuals always are, of different degrees of 
development, it becomes a matter of moral certainty that they 
will not, cannot all see things precisely alike. As the social 
state becomes mixed and diversified, as the race increases, so 
individuals are not only multiplied whose wants or loves may 
conflict, but, they are formed into societies and classes, and 
these are multiplied into communities and nations. Look at 
the entire universe, how complex, how numerous the worlds 
of which it is composed. So many distinct bodies, all depend- 
ent on one cause, but yet each one filling a sphere of its own, 
while not entirely unaffected or independent of all others. 
What omnipresent principle must that be which decides 
between so many, and keeps them, each in their appropriate 
places'? " An undevout astronomer is mad." Andwhatofthe 
skeptic who cannot see that there is something superior to the 
planets, wheeling through the immensity of space, above us, 
that keeps them in their places ? Look at any one body ? Do 
not all its motions indicate a complexity in the machinery of 
which it is but a part ? And what is that something ? 

It is a dictate of reason, that where there are a number of 
individuals, all dependent, whose existence is derived, there 
must be liability to friction and discord, precisely in proportion 
to the complexity of their organisms and their want of informa- 
tion. This is the -condition of the human family, and the 
inherent necessity for justice. It is that principle which 
makes even, and equity between two or more parties. 

But where shall this principle be found ? Here, again, we 
are carried back to man's dependence on the Parental, the 
Superior, the Divine. The parties must not decide for one 
another ; that is, the question to be decided must be adjudicated 
by Superior Goodness, and Wisdom. The discord between 
the parties shows their dependence and inferiority. This 
begins with the children. The parent overrules for them, 
both because he knows best, and he loves both, and does what 
is for the good or development of both. But, in doing some- 



VIRTUE. 401 

thing which may conflict with the Idve of one or both, he 
exercises the principle of justice. Thus we perceive in what 
sense this principle differs from goodness ; it never conflicts 
with goodness, but rather acts for it ; and does what goodness 
would not, or could not do. It is an absurd and monstrous 
error, when mortals are taught that the Divine Goodness and, 
Justice conflict ; and that God suspends and defeats his own 
justice by the superabundance of his mercy and goodness. 

Justice, therefore, like every other essential principle of the 
Divine government, pervades the entire universe, it enters into 
the constitution of human nature, and holds out its balances 
from on high, thus calling on mortals to look above themselves 
when they differ, to that Judge who will render to every man 
according as his works (goodness,) shall be. Let us then 
remember, that this is not a principle of expediency on the 
part of mortals, one or more ; it is not for man to balance 
accounts with himself without the notice of justice. The 
planets do not move on a principle of selfishness ; the sphere of 
each is filled with mathematical precision, and if one ap- 
proaches too near another, the all-pervading principle of 
justice, causes a deflection, which makes manifest the antagon- 
ism, and compensates for the wrong that has been done. 
What is gravitation but justice in the physical universe 1 And 
if it be there, shall we not find it in the world above, in the 
mental and spiritual 1 And, as we ascend, so we find this 
principle corresponding from the conjugal, which typefies it to 
the parental, where it is first administered, and carried out in 
the fraternal and universal relations of human life. 

Observe then, how symmetrical and beautiful are all the 
works of God ! How divine are those principles, which 
develop human beings, and hold them together in those 
relations, out of which spring the various duties and joys of 
life. The social condition and the world, made up of so many 
tastes, so many antagonisms, so many individualisms all differ- 
ing so much, for the want of development and information, 
what but this principle of eternal justice could keep them 
together 1 And, how necessary that a principle so essential 
for the conservation and progression of the race should have 
its place in the inmost of man's nature. Not in an old book, 
composed three thousand years ago, and by men, who were 
themselves but infants in their knowledge of Human Nature ; 
but found in that Living Book, in every page of which, God's 
will is most plainly written. Not in artificial laws, made in 
man's ignorance of God and his works ; not in creeds, made 
by bigotry and fanaticism, not by might exercised over the 
weak and helpless. But in man's nature, God hid that germ, 



402 BOOK OF HUMAN NATURE. 

which, in the process of nature's method is to be developed, 
and reign Supreme over the race of men. 

" A brighter morn awaits the human day 
When every transfer of Earth's natural gifts, 
Shall be a commerce of good words and works, 
When poverty and wealth, the thirst of fame, 
The fear of infamy, disease, and woe. 
War with its million horrors, 
Shall live but in the memory of time. 
Who like a penitent, shall start, 
Look back and shudder at his younger years." 

Integrity. 

287. One of the principle features of Paganism, showing the 
imperfection and infancy of manhood, consisted in the manifest 
want of integrity of character. Nay, the crime of falsehood 
and deception was taught among some of the heathen nations 
as a duty ; and even to this day, it is said, certain tribes are so 
ignorant, that the habit of lying among them is considered 
even as a virtue. However, we find as we advance, that 
there is no real culture without virtue. It lies at the very 
foundation, of all that contributes to intellectual progression. 
We have seen what is signified by the angular, (31,) and what 
by the circular, (101.) And now we come to the reasons for 
integrity of character, like those for goodness and justice, they 
have their foundation in the inmost of man's nature. 

The necessities of man's higher faculties, or his love of 
development and progression, require that he should be good 
and just, that he should fulfil all the relations he sustains to 
God and the universe. It thence follows, that moral obliquity 
is a crime, because it is inconsistent with the highest good of 
these*relations. It is the perversion of justice. The love in 
the knowing faculties, puts one relation for another ; it puts 
the angular for the circular ; the discordant for the harmonious, 
which is, itself, discord and imperfection in the higher nature. 
The wisdom faculties govern and lead, they are our Form and 
Order. If, then, these faculties falsify in respect to our true 
relations, the whole character is vitiated. 

Discord in the vital system is disease ; in the motive sys- 
tem is pain ; in the cerebral system is insanity ; in the highest 
wisdom faculty, is confusion, double motion, falsehood, decep- 
tion, and crime. The human character could not be har- 
moniously developed without truthfulness, which is as if we 
were to say, it cannot be harmonious without harmony, it can- 
not advance without progressing ; it cannot be in the light of 
wisdom without perceiving. So essential is integrity in the 
harmonious development of the human mind ; it is that to the 
spirit, which pure air is to the lungs, or life. As the higher 



VIRTUE. 403 

nature is discordant, so, the conscious, intelligent volitions, or 
loves, are inconsistent with the relations of life. It is not an 
error of ignorance, a mistake of the judgment ; the error con- 
sists in the knowledge, it is discord in the knowing faculty. 
The most flagrant crimes are committed by the knowing ; not^ 
by the uninformed. Mortals err for the want of knowledge, 
but it could not bo said, a mortal lied for the want of know- 
ledge. It is in the design to deceive, the design to pervert 
the relations of life that makes the crime. These relations 
we know, we have a knowledge of them, or which is the same, 
a belief as to the truth, or real, in what is uttered. Hence it 
is, that this crime can be committed only by knowing ; and 
thus the character is hindered and perverted when it becomes 
thus vitiated with the false. 

Extending our aspirations to that which is above, it may 
indeed be said, that all moral obliquity, all want of integrity, 
all mental discord and deformity is from ignorance, a want of 
a knowledge of the higher life, of those higher degrees of 
goodness, justice, and truth. All the crime in the universe 
may be said to result from ignorance ; because, if mortals only 
knew their real destiny, and how their highest good were to 
be secured, they could not sin. We do not call those things 
sins, that are unavoidable, such, as we have no knowledge of, 
mistakes of judgment, differences of opinion, doubt or faith on 
any subject, where there is integrity of character. 

Strictly speaking, man is no more blame-worthy for doubt- 
ing, than he is for his want of natural sight. Can one walk 
without feet 1 So, to believe, we must have the faculty of 
faith, and the appropriate amount of evidence. We say appro- 
priate, for that amount of evidence which would be sufficient 
for one person, would not satisfy another. Now, are we to 
suppose that this difference in the capacity for believing is a 
virtue 1 If so, how does it appear to be any more of a virtue 
on one side, than on the other 1 Why is it not, really, as 
meritorious in one to doubt, as it is in another to believe ? 

But we are asked, why all the evidence necessary to pro- 
duce conviction may not be realized at once ? Why this slow 
process of acquiring knowledge ? Why compelled to wait so 
long? Perhaps, for a similar reason, that you are "com- 
pelled" to pass through a state of childhood, then a state of 
youth, and so to continue years of toil before you arrive at the 
maturity of manhood. Why may not all comprehend the 
science of music, or mathematics, without years of study ? 
Why, rather, should we have to grow at all ? Why not be all 
that we ever can be, at once, so that there shall be no room 
left for progression ? 

Faith is not a matter of volition. Integrity of character is. 



404 BOOK OF HUMAN NATURE. 

And, here it seems to me, the knot is untied that has so often 
puzzled metaphysicians, when treating on the freedom of man- 
hood. Man is free in his individuality ; he is and must be 
sovereign in his selfhood. Thus he becomes conscious of 
loving, and conscious of those relations out of which his love 
springs ; conscious of the duties which are appropriate and 
required by man's highest good ; conscious of his choice, or 
love of one, for the other, or of his perverting them as he does . 
when he chooses the false, and rejects the true. Thus we 
see, that it is not what man honestly believes, or disbelieves, 
that vitiates his character ; it is what he loves, his higher 
volitions make him truthful and honest, or false and impure. 
These views solve the mysteries in respect to charity, faith, 
and good works. Because we here see plainly, what is 
meant by charity, it being but another name for love, good- 
ness, or good works ; because our works always correspond 
with our love, either of God or man. But, our belief or faith, 
is the exercise of the understanding or wisdom principle. 
Hence the fallacy of supposing that a man is good, or is justi- 
fied, esteemed as good by God, for the simple act of faith ; an 
error so absurd, that but a slight acquaintance with nature's 
laws, or God's method of government is necessary to see how 
utterly inconsistent it is. The life of man is his love ; the 
form of his life, his wisdom, and what he believes he receives 
in the wisdom principle. How then, can the belief or disbe- 
lief be an object of merit or demerit] His love may be high 
or low, and by its degrees his moral character must be deter- 
mined. 

Tlie Family Circle. 

S88. This is the place of all others for commencing, and 
carrying forward the great work of intellectual culture. Here 
in this most interesting spot. Here, where centre the hopes 
of the future, where are commenced those lovely and endearing 
relations, out of which spring all that is beautiful, truthful and 
good. The family circle ! What joys, what heavenly en- 
dearments centre here. Here is the mother's love, the 
father's joy ; the sister's smile. Here, is that fraternal love, 
whence flows equality, sovereignty, and equal justice ; virtues 
which make a paradise even of earthly homes. What place 
this side the abodes of the blest above, so becoming an effort 
for the cultivation of the God-given soul. That priceless 
jewel, here appreciated according to its true origin and des- 
tiny, may well demand the paternal solicitudes for instruction, 
development and harmony. And, oh, delightful task, indeed, 
to pour the light divine upon the pathway of innocence and 



THE FAMILY CIRCLE. 405 

vontb ; to lift up the expanding mind to those sublime truths 
of nature which enlarj^e the soul in their perception. 

It is here, indeed, that all culture must begin. For here 
are often sown the seeds of error, that bring forth in riper 
years the bitter fruits of violated law. Commence then in the 
family circle. As soon zs the tender mind is expanded suffi- 
ciently to be attracted by the parental voice, should this 
heavenly work begin. Always with some kind word, some 
gentle look, some higher truth to impress upon the mind. A 
the morning and evening meal, how appropriate is the instruc- 
tion which falls from parental lips. The cheerful explanation 
of mysteries, the playful remark of every day life ; the appeals 
to the gentle, the Kind and good. Instruction always from the 
different kingdoms in nature, a world of matter and mind 
around us, upon which to feed and delight the senses of the 
soul. Wait not, then ; not even for Sunday, but every day, 
each hour in the day : — 

" 0, there's a power to make each hour 

As sweet as heaven designed it, 
Nor need we roam to bring it home, 

Though few there be who find it ! 
We seek too high for things close by 

And lose what nature found us ; 
For life hath here no charm so dear 

As home and friends around us !" 

There are three traits to be noticed in this work, which par- 
take of the parental, the methodical, and devotional. That is, 
the instruction is to come from the parents, or from the elder 
brother, sister, or older members of the family. Children are 
always aspiring, looking up for information from those above 
them. Here you do not have to seek an audience to hear a 
sermon or a lecture ; your hearers are always near you, and 
ready to receive the best you have to give. 

Method. This will depend upon your wisdom. The man- 
ner in which any work is done, shows how much the workman 
knew, how great his skill is. Method is necessary for your 
own sake, as well as that of your family. Always have some 
topic for investigation, some question of fact, or history, or 
philosophy for solution. Your object is to cause your children, 
and all in your circle to originate thoughts for themselves ; 
not to make them egotistical and opinionated, but to think for 
themselves. This is man's true life. The mind must be 
taught to make independent exertions of its own, by which it 
originates ideas, and discovers for itself the modes, and causes 
of things, or those propositions which it receives as Truths. 
And, in no other place on earth are there so many favorable 
conditions for starting the mind upon a course of free, inde- 



406 BOOK OF HUMAN NATURE. 

pendent thinking as here. The best method for this work, 
therefore, takes the most appropriate means, and uses them at 
the proper time. 

The object makes the work appropriate, and if pursued with 
uniformity, it becomes devotional, precisely in proportion as it 
reaches into the higher nature, and calls into exercise the in- 
most faculties of the soul. All seasons of relaxation from 
labor, and especially at meal time, when all the members of the 
family are present ; these are times of gratitude, of cheerful 
associations when man's inmost soul spontaneously worships 
the Giver of all good. No ceremonies, nothing artificial is 
needed here : — 

" God is a Spirit, and tney who aright 
Perform the pure worship He loveth, 
In the heart's holy temple yield up with delight 
That spirit the Father approveth." 

And thus, it is the holiest love, the most pure and ennobling 
of all the virtues, the Heavenly and the Divine, are offered up 
on this altar. 

" It is not much this world can give, with all its subtle art ; 
And gold and gems are not the things to satisfy the heart. 
But O, if those who cluster round the altar and the hearth, 
Have gentle words and loving smiles, how beautiful is earth." 

This is the true church, the true priesthood, the true sacre- 
ments, the true worship ; the real shekinah is found here : — 

" This circle is the bright prelude 

To heaven's eternal, cloudless day. 
Where, hopes revived and loves renewed, 
Shall never, never fade away." 

Circles for Mental Culture. 

289. This section of our work would scarcely be complete, 
perhaps, without a few practical directions for the assistance of 
such as may wish to engage in the work of intellectual culture 
out of the family circle. Finding so much to learn, and feeling 
so very little attracted to the usual places of sectarian instruc- 
tion, multitudes would often unite in some form of spiritual 
labor, provided it were known where, and how to begin ; the 
means to be used, and the best method for operating so as to 
attract the largest number of congenial minds and thus do the 
greatest amount of good. Only a few general directions can 
be given. 

1. All movements for the good of others, start from a germ, 
which may here be called the parental, because this germ 
must partake of the person who is the head of the family 
circle, or association. The mind by which any measures of 



MENTAL CULTURE. 407 

public concernment are originated, must give character more or 
less to the whole movement, and attract or repel other mh»ds 
that are in corresponding states of mental affinity. It, there- 
fore, becomes an object to be deliberated upon, by the largest 
number of congenial friends in any locality, where a circle of 
this kind is contemplated, as to who should be the head, 
whose mind shall lead in the undertaking. It is, of course, 
the most desirable that the one should be made the most con- 
spicuous who has the most wisdom, by which others would be 
likely to be attracted around him. The head, the leader, 
teacher, presides in all the public meetings, and performs the 
usual offices of a presiding officer. He preserves order, pro- 
poses questions for investigation, and does for the circle what 
the mind of man does for himself, for his own body, his own 
gratification. There may be two or more persons, who might 
alternate in this service. But it should be understood that the 
business, the work to be done, must be pointed out by the 
head ; he may have as many eyes, and ears, and hands, and 
feet as will serve him willingly, but he must give direction, he 
is the Form and Order of all that is done. He may be your 
minister, reader, lecturer, but to the circle should serve the 
same function as is similarly done by the wise Parent, and by 
the human intellect for the body, over which it presides. 

2. The efficiency of the circle will depend, then, on the 
capacity of the head, and corresponding congeniality of all the 
members. Nothing can be accomplished without congeniality. 

3. The next question is, how shall we attract the largest 
number of congenial minds to co-operate with our own ? This 
will depend upon numerous conditions. Your object ; the 
manner in which you state it ; its feasibility ; and the 'means 
you recommend for its acquisition. It is desirable that you 
should be able to go on in your work without friction ; and 
friction is always the more liable where there is complicated 
machinery. Thus, voting, debating; appointing officers, 
adopting constitutions, by-laws, &c., the less of these things 
the better. If you do not find intelligence and efficiency 
enough in your head, or president, to execute your wishes, 
without this machinery, put it in operation ; and if you can 
make it go without friction, do so. It is questionable whether 
circles for spiritual culture, ever gain much by discussions, or 
the free exercise of the combative organs. Those, like some 
infidels, and others professing to be christian, who indulge 
freely in the exercise of combativeness in their methods of in- 
vestigation, are not perceived to progress much. These 
organs appertain more to man's lower nature, and are most 
called into exercise where his higher faculties are imperfectly 
developed, as is plainly to be seen in the history of all warS} 



408 BOOK OF HUMAN NATUEE. 

both civil and ecclesiastical. Indeed, some of the most bitter 
and repulsive contentions that have ever been known, have 
occurred in the pulpit, and associated with the christian priest- 
hood. 

Our discussions should be rather of the conversational and 
paternal kind. And it may be doubtful, whether those socie- 
ties advance very rapidly, if they do at all, where there is not 
one or more of its members who, by spontaneous filial love, is 
placed in " the chair," which, from time immemorial, has 
been appropriated to the office of paternal instruction. 

The faculty of memory is necessary, and hence the ne- 
cessity of a secretary, and so of a treasurer, but all these 
things should be done as much as possible without debate. 

To set forth your object, some kind of a manifesto may be 
necessary. It should be simple. It need not embody a sys- 
tem of Divinity, or Philosophy, especially if you are in search 
of both. Do not put that in your creed which you are trying 
to find. Something of this kind, might answer a good use till 
you could find a better : — 

DECLARATION. 

290. Creed. Individual sovereignty, the true doctrine of 
manhood ; and eternal progression the destiny of the race. 
Authority in matters of faith, superior goodness, justice, wis- 
dom, reason, intuition. 

2. Oiject. Intellectual culture, development, universal 
harmony. 

3. Method. Meetings, conversations, lectures, readings. 
The unrestricted investigation of whatever appertains to theo- 
logy, philosophy, and science, past, present, and future. • 

This circle is open to all persons, who, free from the control 
of sectarian credulity on the one hand, or skeptical dogmatism 
on the other, are attracted to its public meetings by their love 

of ORIGINALITY OF THOUGHT, in rCSpect tO the ESSENCE, FORM, 

and USE of all things. 



SECTARIAN THEOLOGY. 409 



DIVINITY. 

EXTERNAL, INTERNAL, INMOST. 



Sectarian Theology. 

291. Our inquiries having conducted us to certain important 
conclusions in respect to the higher life, or God, they may now 
be stated sojriewhat more minutely. We began with the 
Divine, (8, 11) and thus whether we go back, or forward, 
whether we examine the external, discordant ; or the internal, 
celestial, and harmonious, we find God, the highest. The 
law of cause and effect assures us, that the idea of this world's 
having been created out of nothing is an absurdity, a contra- 
diction, and contradictions are characteristic of the external or 
old theology. Having thus found the Divine, is the celestial 
or inmost in man, the source and cause of all things, so also, 
we can perceive that He is all the end there is, or can be. 
All things eternally exist from and in Him, and our own ex- 
istence is made up in observing the changes which they un- 
dergo. 

Having thus found the Divine in man, and traced the course 
which science and philosophy have taken ; having stated the 
Divine philosophy to which we are thus conducted by all the 
processes of nature, in the past, it may now be well to redeem 
the promise (262) to contrast the old, discordant, and sectarian 
theology with that which is truly Divine. 

As we have seen, theology is that science which has always 
assumed to teach of God and man's future state. The subject 
is legitimately before us here, in as much as we have found 
that man's inmost nature takes cognisance of God, aspires for 
a knowledge of Him, and the laws by which His designs are 
fulfilled. The fetichism of the primitive ages, and all the 
polytheism that followed, combine to show this inherent long- 
ing of man's inmost nature for the Divine. His instincts im- 
pel him to seek for one above, one higher than himself. He 
feels dependent, ignorant, helpless. He knows he was not 
self originated, and impelled by his filial lave, he forme impef- 
18 



410 BOOK OF HUMAN NATURE. 

feet conceptions of the God he cannot see, which have given 
character to the creeds and forms of worship that have ob- 
tained in preceding ages of the world. 

BIBLICAL CONTRADICTIONS. 

292. It hence becomes a question for succeeding ages to 
decide, as to how far they shall be governed by the views of 
those who have gone before them. What did their prede- 
cessors know of themselves, of nature, and of God ■? What 
were their facilities for acquiring information on this subject 1 
And what is our highest authority in matters of religious faith ? 
How has this question been answered by nations that have 
gone before 1 What do we learn from mythology 1 From the 
Koran, or the sacred writings of the Hindoos'? Are there 
any " sacred writings" so called, of equal authority with the 
Bible 1 I know of none, and supposing my readers will 
generally agree with me in this opinion, I ask attention to a 
few remarks, designed to show why "I cannot yield to that 
book what is claimed in the creeds of sectarianism. The use 
which the Bible, as a religious book, was to subserve in the 
great design of God, is a very different matter from the views 
which a few mortals may have entertained of it. And that I 
may not be misapprehended in what I am about to offer, let me 
premise : — 

1. That I believe the Bible to have been inspired by Good- 
ness and Truth, just in proportion to the truth developed in its 
pages, and this must of necessity correspond with the capaci- 
ties of its writers for receiving it. That some of them were 
*' ignorant and unlearned men," we have their own testimony 
to prove ; they were ignorant even for the age in which they 
lived. And when it is considered that all parts of the Bible 
were written at remote and different periods, when theology, 
science, and philosophy were in their infancy, and but imper- 
fectly understood by the most learned and wise of the Jewish 
nation, it becomes a matter of certainty that the writers of the 
Bible, did not and could not be receptive of those views of 
God, and nature, which are demanded by the progressive 
wants of the whole human race. All this may be true, while 
we suppose the men who wrote the Bible had all the inspira- 
tion which they were capable of receiving. They were im- 
perfect men, and profoundly ignorant of many things on which 
they wrote ; and hence the errors to which I now propose to 
refer. 

2. The Bible, for the times in which it was written, was the 
best book, and shows how far the religious element was deve- 
loped in the human race, at the various periods when its dif- 
ferent parts were composed. 



SECTARIAK THEOLOGY. 411 

Thus, it beautifully corresponds with all the other develop- 
ments of nature. (264.) We have seen, that the love element 
is always developed before that of wisdom ; and when it is so, 
angularity, ignorance, imperfection, discord, and evil, are the 
results. The Old Testament writers manifest often, ardent 
love of God, and yet, that very God, whom they praised in 
psalms and prayers, was a most implacable enemy to all but 
Jews. It is evident, that had the wisdom element been fully 
developed in those writers, they could not have loved such a 
God as they have set forth as an object of worship, under the 
name of Jehovah. 

3. Hence, believing as I do, that this book subserves a good 
use in the great design of God ; I could not throw it away, nor 
would I undervalue the truths contained in its writings, any 
more than I could throw away the religious element in man's 
nature. Goodness and real truth are immortal, and can never 
die, while evil, imperfection, or error, must eventually be lost 
in eternal progression. We gain nothing by attempting to con- 
ceal error, either in ourselves or in the writings of human 
i,beings, like ourselves, who lived thousands of years ago. 

The writers of the Bible did as well as they could, they 
wrote well, some of them, of many things. And for their 
errors, (egregious and palpable as many of them were,) this 
apology may be made — they lived in the infancy of the race. 
They were, themselves, mere infants in the knowledge of 
many things of which they wrote. They knew no better, nor 
had they any adequate means of higher knowledge ; an apology, 
this which can scarcely be made for many sectarian teachers, 
who now make a god of this book. These teachers, we may 
suppose, ought to know better ; they ought to open their eyes, 
and see what God is doing all around them, the ten thousand 
ways in which He is now speaking to the race, and demon- 
strating this very view here set forth in respect to the Bible, 
of which I am now speaking. All modern religious teachers 
may be supposed to enjoy facilities for information which were 
unknown in the earlier ages, and such as should convince 
them, that the contradictions in the Bible, here pointed out, 
are not merely apparent, they are internal, real, spiritual. 
That is, they are the manifestations of misconception and ig- 
norance in the writers. And to attempt to evade the inference 
that is to be legitimately drawn from such evidences of ig- 
norance, is only to make manifest the imperfection of our own 
minds. The better way is (o approach this subject with a 
manly frankness, admit the errors, and by so doing, we can 
have a more accurate appreciation of the truths that re- 
main : — 



412 BOOK OF HUMAN NATURE. 



Literal Contradictions in the Bible. 

293. Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God. 1 
Cor. 15: 50. Contradicted in 2 Kings, 2 : 11. Elijah went 
up by a whirlwind into heaven. And see Job, 19 : 26. 

God will render to every man according to his deeds. Rom. 
2 : 9. Contradicted in Matt. 20 : 9, 10. And they received 
every man a penny. All fared alike, 

God sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust. Matt. 5 : 
45. Contradicted in Amos, 4:7. I have withholden the rain 
from you. 

No man hath ascended up into heaven. John, 3 : 13. 
Contradicted in 2 Kings, 2 : 11. Elijah ascended up into 
heaven. 

Christ raised the widow's son from the dead. Luke, 7 : 15. 
And Lazarus, also. John, 11 : 44. Contradicted in Acts, 26 : 
23, where it is said Christ was, himself, the Jirst who should 
be raised from the dead. 

Christ said all power was given him, in heaven and in earth. 
Matt, 28 : 18. Contradicted in Matt. 20 : 23, where he sayS* 
he does not possess all power. 

Is God a fool ? Ps. 7 : 11. God is angry with the wicked, 
every day. Anger resteth in the bosom of fools. Ecc. 7 : 9. 

Is Christ " in danger of hell fire V Matt. 5 : 22. Whoso- 
ever shall say thou fool, shall be in danger of hell fire. And 
yet Christ himself calls men "fools." Matt. 23: 17. Ye 
fools and blind ! 

Spiritual Contradictions in the Bible. 

294. The following are, also, literal, palpable contradictions, 
and I add the term spiritual to signify that they are real, not 
merely apparent, but real, entering into the internal sense and 
meaning of the text, or what was designed to be taught by the 
writers. ' 

God saw everything that he had made, and behold it was 
very good. Gen. 1 : 31. Contradicted in Gen. 6 : H. It re- 
pented the Lord that he had made man on the earth, and it 
grieved him at the heart. 

Thou shalt not defraud thy neighbor, nor roTi him. Lev. 19 : 
13. Contradicted in Exo. 3 : 21, 22. When ye go, ye shall 
not go empty — borrow of your neighbors and guests, gold, 
silver, and raiment — ye shall spoil the Egyptians. 

All the cattle of Egypt died, but of the cattle of the children 
of Israel died not one. Ex. 9 : 6. Contradicted in Ex. 9 : 20, 
21. And Pharaoh had horses for an army. Ch. 14 : 7. 

The son shall not bear the iniquity of the father. Ezek. 18 : 



SECTAEIAN THEOLOGY. 413 

30. Contradicted in Ex. 20 : 5 ; and ch. 34 : 7. I am a 
jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the 
children. ~ 

Thou canst not see my face — no man shall see me and live 
— my face shall not be seen. Ex. 33 : 20-23. Contradicted in 
Gen. 32 : 30. I have seen God face to face. The Lord talked 
wiih Moses, and spake to him face to face, as a man speaketh 
to a friend. Ex. 33 : 9-11. Ye have neither heard his voice 
at any time, nor seen his shape. John, 5 : 37. 

God is a spirit. John, 4 : 24. A spirit hath not flesh and 
bones. Luke, 24 : 39. Contradicted in Gen. 3 : 9, 10. Adam 
heard God's voice in the garden. God answered Moses by a 
voice. Ex. 19 : 19. And is said to have literal hands, and 
face, and back parts. Ex. 33 : 22, 23. 

God moved David to number Israel and Judah. They num- 
bered 1,300,000 — seven years ^diiame offered as the punishment 
— David's will was absolute ; the people could not help being 
so numbered ; and yet 70,000 of them died, were killed by 
their Maker, for an offence they had no hand in committing. 
David admits the fault was his own, compares the people for 
their innocence therein, to sheep, and asks, " What have they 
done V David bought the place and oxen for fifty shekels of 
silver. 2 Sam. 24 : 1, 9, 13, 24. Contradicted in 1 Chron. 
21 : 1, 5, 25. Where it is all laid to the devil ; and here it is 
said the people numbered 1,570,000 ; and (not seven but) three 
years of famine offered. David gave (not 50 shekels of silver) 
but 600 shekels of gold by weight. . 

David took 1000 chariots, 700 horses, &c. 2 Sam. 8 : 4. 
Contradicted in 1 Chron. 18 : 4. Where it is said David took 
1000 chariots, 7000 horsemen. 

And is the book containing such errors as these to be con- 
sidered " an infallible rule of faith and practice ?" 

Essential Contradictions in the Bible. 

295. The following representations of God are palpable, 
essential, contradictions : — 

None can stay his hand or say what doest thou. Dan. 4 : 35. 
He will not lie nor repent. He is not a man that he should 
repent, be sorry, or change his mind. 1 Sam. 15 : 29. It is 
impossible for God to lie, either himself, directly, or by 
causing others to lie. Heb. 6 : 18. Lying lips are an abomi- 
nation to him. Prov. 12 : 22. He is good and doeth good. 
All these representations are flatly contradicted in various pas- 
sages. Thus Moses persuaded God, so that he did repent of 
the punishment which he had made up his mind to inflict upon 
his people. Ex. 32 : 11, 14. God himself, declares that he 
was weary of repenting ! Jer. 15 : 6. Nay, he did not fulfil 



414 BOOK OF HUMAN NATUKE. 

his own oath. Num. 14 : 30, God directed Samuel to practice 
deception. 1 Sam. 16 : 2. And more, this same God, put a 
lying spirit into the prophets to cause them to utter lies. 1 
Kings, 22 : 20-23. He, moreover, sent an evil spirit to assist 
in a case of base treachery and murder. Judges, 9 : 22-24. 

The Bible abounds in representations of God's never af- 
flicting nor grieving the children of man. Sam. 3 : 33. His 
mercy endureth for ever. 1 Ghron. 16 : 41. The Lord has no 
pleasure in the death of him that dieth. Ezek. 18 : 32. He 
willeth that all men should come to the knowledge of the truth, 
and be saved. 1 Tim. 2 : 4. Contradicted in numerous pas- 
sages. Smite the nations and utterly destroy them, and show 
no mercy nor pity unto them. Deut. 7 : 2, 16. Their infants 
shall be dashed in pieces, and their women shall be ripped up. 
Hosea, 13 : 16. He smote them with emerods, with a very 
great destruction. 1 Sam. 5 : 9. He cast great stones from 
heaven, and killed them. Josh. 10 : 11. He sent among the 
people fiery serpents which bit and killed them. Num. 21 : 6. 
The Lord hardened their hearts, that they might find no favor, 
and be utterly destroyed. Josh. 11 : 20. He shall send them 
strong delusion, that they may believe a lie and be damned. 2 
Thes. 2:11, 12. 

. The genealogy of Jesus Christ is contradictory. Mat. 1 : 
2-16 ; Luke, 3 : 34-23 reversed. From Abraham to David 
both give fourteen names or generations, in which they agree. 
From David to Jesus they disagree throughout. Matthew 
gives 27, Luke, 42. Matthew says Jesus came through 
David's son Solomon, and is particular to add, " of her that had 
been the wife of Urias," and also that Joseph's father was 
Jacob. Luke says he came through David's son Nathan, and 
that Joseph's father was Heli. 

Historical portions of the New Testament are contradictions. 

(1.) Peter and Andrew were called from the sea side, where 
Jesus first saw them, while casting their nets. Matt. 4 : 18, 
19, 20. 

Andrew brought Peter to the dwelling of Jesus, and there 
he first saw him. John, 1 : 38-42. 

(2.) Judas repented, and brought again to the priests and 
elders the thirty pieces of silver, cast them down in the temple, 
and went and hanged himself; the priests took the silver pieces, 
and bought the potter's field. Matt. 27 : 3-7. 

Judas purchased the field with the reward of iniquity, and 
falling headlong, he burst asunder in the midst and his bowels 
gushed out. Acts, 1 : 16, 18. 

(3.) At the rising of the sun the two Mary's, and other wo- 
men with them, came to the sepulchre. Mark, 16 : 1, 2 ; 
Luke, 24 : 1-10. 



SECTARIAN THEOLOGY. 415 

Mary Magdalene came alone^ while it was yet dark ; no 
woman being with her. John, 20 : 1-18. 

Fatal Contradictions in the Bible. 

296. It is an admitted doctrine of the Bible that God inflicts 
retributive justi9e upon all men, with infinite impartiality. 

For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ ; 
that every one may receive the tilings done in his body, 
according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad. 
Be not deceived ; God is not mocked ; for whatsoever a man 
soweth, that shall he also reap. Gal. 6:7; Eph. 6:8; Col. 3 : 
25 ; Rev. 2 : 23. 

But all this is flatly contradicted, in those passages which 
represent Christ as having suffered the penalty of the violated 
law, and thus prevented its infliction upon the sinner. It is 
said : — Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, 
being made a curse for us. Gal. 3 : 113. 

Here we say, is a contradiction which is fundamental and 
fatal ; demonstrating the old theology to be discordant, and not 
reliable. If God punish the transgressor as he is said here to 
do, then he is not and cannot be " saved" from the curse of 
the law, or the punishment due, always to the violations of 
law. A contradiction, this, which no Jesuitical casuistry can 
evade, or set aside. And being as it is the main pillar of the 
old theology, it becomes manifest how certain the fall of that 
system must be, in the process of time, which depends upon an 
error so contradictory and utterly irreconcilable with the laws 
of the eternal God. 

Discordant Views of the Deity. 

297. The report of a certain committee's investigations for 
*' mending the Bible," tells us that they found no essential 
errors in all the writings of that book — none which aflfected the 
sense, so as to change or do away any sectarian dogma or 
doctrine deemed fundamental.* But candidly, it were to be 



* From a paper read to the New York Historical Society, by Dr. 
Eobinson, of that city, June 3d, 1850, we learn that a nevi^ and 
amended edition of the Bible is to be published under the authority 
of the American Bible Society. Of the committee appointed to the 
task of revision and correction, Dr. E. is a member ; and with him 
are associated Dr. M'Lean and Dr. Vermilye. Their first duty was 
to make a collection of the English versions of the Bible, for the 
purpose of correcting the errors of those now in common use in 
this country, and restoring them to the purity of the original version 
of the fifty-four translators appointed by King James, It was found, 
upon examination, that multitudes of errors had crept into all the 
copies that had ever been printed, and they are unavoidable. No 



416 BOOK OF HUMAN NATURE. 

wished that some of the representations, as they now stand in 
the Bible, were traceable to typographical errors. In many 
passages the Infinite Father is represented as commanding 
the death of his children, and for things that would now be ad- 
mitted to be trifling, indeed. 

1. God is said to command a man to be put to death for 
owning an unrnly ox. Ex. 21 : 29. 

2. God is said to command that the parties guilty of incest 
should be put to death. Lev. 20 : 11. 

3. God is said to command that whoever doeth work on the 
Sabbath should be put to death. Ex. 35 : 2. 

4. God is said to command that the crime of manslaughter 
should be punished with death. Lev. 24 : 21. 

5. God is said to have commanded that a poor, ignorant 
stranger who should chance to "come nigh" his tabernacle, 
should be put to death. Num. 1 : 51. 

6. God is said to have commanded " a dreamer of dreams" 
to be put to death. Deut. 13 : 5. 

7* God is said to have commanded men to be put to death 
for " gluttonness ;"' and to have commanded parents to procure 
the death of their children whom they could not control. 
Deut. 21 : 21. 

8. God is said to have commanded all men to be put to 
death, who might dissent from " the word" of Moses. Josh. 
1: 18. 

This is pure sectarianism; and sectarianism with a ven- 
geance, wheH one is put to death, for mere dissent in matters 
of faith. 

9. God is represented as -commanding " all, whether small 
or great, whether men or women," should be put to death, who 
refused to seek him ! That is, when the Hebrew God made 
such an exhibition of himself as repelled his creatures, he put 
them to death for it. 2 Chron. 15 : 13. 

10. This same God is said to have commanded that certain 
persons who might " come into his house," should be put to 
death for it. 2 Chron. 23 : 7. 

11. This same Hebrew God is represented as not only com- 
manding the death of " the wicked," or those whom he did not 
attract, but he himself is said to have killed men, women, and 
children ; and for the same cause to have killed and destroyed 
whole families and cities of people. Gen. 19 : 14 ; Deut. 2 : 
21 ; 4 : 3 ; 11 : 4 ; 2 Kings, 21 : 9 ; 2 Chron. 33 : 9 ; Judges, 
20 : 18, 21, 25, 35, 42 ; Ps. 9 : 6 ; Acts, 13 : 19. 

Buch thing as a book without mistakes has yet been seen. The num- 
ber of errors the committee have corrected, amount to about twenty- 
four thousand. 



SECTARIAN THEOLOaY. 417 

12. He ordered the destruction 6f innocent little children, 
and " the fruit of the womb ;" wives to be ravished, and 
young men to be dashed in pieces. Is, 13 : 15. 

13. He ordered infants to be dashed in pieces, and women 
with child to be ripped up. Hosea, 13 : 16 ; and declares the' 
ruffian " happy who should dash the little ones against the 
stones." Ps. 137: 9. 

Such are some of the " errors" in that book, which, in the 
estimation of the universe of intelligences, good and truthful, 
need mending far more than a few mere typographical mistakes, 
which we are told, a committee have spent three years in 
searching out. The error, however, is not so much in the 
Bible as it is in the views which sectarians entertain of it. That 
book does not assume to be infallible, either in its language or 
the views which its writers give of God. The belief that it is 
so, is an error, which has crept into the minds of men long 
since the last page of the Bible was written ; and it is now 
peculiarly characteristic of sectarianism, that so many of its 
professed friends are now so much more zealous for having the 
language of the Bible punctuated and spelled correctly, than 
they are to have, in themselves, accurate views of human 
nature, through which the Bible, and every other book, has 
been written. 

I conclude, therefore, that man needs higher authority for 
what he believes of God, and of human destiny, than can be 
found in any book, especially one containing so much that I 
know is not, and cannot be true. That authority is found in 
Superior Wisdom, GoodneSs, Justice, which are developed by 
the Divine, in and through the relations of life. 

It is characteristic of that theological sectarianism that has 
most hindered the progression of the human race, that it has 
denied to itself all possibility of advancement. It has gravely 
admitted the laws of progression in all departments of philo- 
sophy and science, save and excepting that of the Divine 
Being ! We may progress in the arts, we may advance, in 
any and all things, but Christian theology. On that subject, 
the truth was stereotyped three thousand years ago, and we 
must not, cannot advance a single step. It cannot be improved. 
Nay, a curse is denounced against the attempt to progress, as 
this would be adding to the " Word of God." Such is the 
theology of the past; and much of the same prevails, at the 
present day. It is not found adapted to the expanding wants 
of the race. It is selfish, contracted, discordant, unsatisfac- 
tory. It misrepresents God, misapprehends human nature, and 
■ as a system it stands directly in the way of man's highest 
good. 

What the theology of past ages was, w? learn from the book 



418 BOOK OF HUMAN NATUEE. 

containing- these errors •, and what it is now, must be manifest 
lust as far as this boolc is taken for its highest authority. Here 
then, is the soil in which grow the rank weeds of sectarian 
bigotry. Here is the mandate for those creeds and that 
theology which joins with the rabble in its clamor for blood, 
for degrading punishment, for taking human life by law. 
That horrible feature of savagism peculiar to the age when 
it was demanded " An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth." 
It sanctions war, offensive and defensive, monopolies, tyranny, 
slavery, and all those antagonisms of society which grow out 
of ignorance, and the want of progression. A theology which 
has done more to perpetuate human slavery than all the civil 
laws in the world ; it has inflicted pains and penalties upon 
rational beings for acting out the harmonious impulses of their 
nature ; forbids innocent rational amusement, and consigns 
those to hell and eternal damnation, who refuse obedience to 
its horrible dogmas. It is opposed to progression, opposed to 
freedom of opinion, opposed to that system of intellectual cul-' 
ture which does not yield implicit obedience to its sectarian 
dogmatism. It fails to perceive man's true destiny ; it is cir- 
cumscribed, and shut up within the narrow confines of a few 
ignorant minds who happened to live two or three thousand 
years ago. It cannot tolerate rational amusement, intellectual 
mirth, the exercise of those God-given faculties that assist in 
the development of both soul and body. 

The theology man wants, is that very gospel that we have 
seen to be developed through the higher nature of the race. 
It is not something added to him ; not a system, especially, 
which begins by telling him he is an incarnate demon, totally 
corrupt, and deserving to be eternally damned. It is rather 
God the inmost in man, in those divine relations which make 
him a human, social, intelligent, progressive being. It deve- 
lops the Divine in him, creates his wants and satisfies them ; 
gives him eyes, and light as a medium for their functions. 
Such is the gospel of humanity. The philosophy of nature 
explained in these pages gives a more consistent view of the 
old theology than that theology could, or ever did give of 
itself. We have seen, how its chief errors have been ori- 
ginated ; they had their foundation in ignorance. Thus : — 

The notion as to " three persons in the Godhead," is the 
misconception of the real trinity in the essence, form and use 
of all things. 

The notion of "total depravity," is the quintessence of 
ignorance; total, and innate, that is sure enough. 
■ The notion of " vicarious atonement," is a misconception of 
that compensating, ever present principle of eternal justice, 
omnipresent in the universe of all being. 



THE TRUE GOD. 419 

The notion as to the " fall of man," originated from a mis- 
conception as to the relation of a state of infancy when com- 
pared with true manhood. The former is a state of innocence ; 
but the latter is a state of discord, labor, and pain. 

The idea in respect to the " new birth," arose from a mis- 
conception as to the " fall." As man's original innocence was 
in a state of " infancy," so he must " be born again," in order 
to become again innocent. And so the true doctrine of aspira- 
tion, for progression and harmonious development were mis- 
conceived, and perverted into all that appertains in the old 
theology to the notions about " conviction for sin," and " tra- 
vail," for the " new birth." 

The " devil" of olden times was the mere personification 
of ignorance, discord, and evil. 

And the Bible itself, and, indeed, all the religious motions 
ever made, are but so many manifestations of the religious, or 
filial disposition in man. Without wisdom, see what it will 
do ! See what it has done ; and, from all the past, see what it 
will do in the future with suitable cultivation. 

*' The rounded world is fair to see, 

Nine times folded in mystery : 

Though baffled seers cannot impart 

The secret of its laboring heart, 

Throb thine with Nature's throbbing breast. 

And all is clear from east to west, 

Spirit that lurks each form within 

Beckons to spirit of its kin ; 

Self-kindled every atom glows, 

And hints the future which it owes." — Emerson. 

The True Ood, 

298. The great importance of this subject seems to render 
it necessary that I should close this chapter, with some further 
views of the Divine, entering as this idea does into all things 
that appertain to man and the destiny of the human race. For, 
as man's conception is of the highest, so must his life be, so is 
he. And thus it is, if his idea of God be low, and false, all 
betow must be dark and false, because, all else is below God. 
The highest truths, are those that approach the nearest to the 
Divine ; the highest good, the highest wisdom, is that which 
approaches the nearest to him. Contemplating then, nature, 
or man, externally, or internally, we find God. Go back to 
the mineral kingdom, that was the nearest ; to him, because it 
came into form before man ; and yet, we must leave the 
mineral, the external, and go into the inmost of man, to find 
God, because He is the inmost of all. Man is himself a re- 
presentative of God and the whole universe of being ; and 



420 BOOK OF HUMAN NATUEE. 

hence it is, that the highest conception we can form of God is 
that, He is an Infinite Man, dwelling in the centre of in- 
finity. The sun, or the interior of that luminary, is the centre 
of the solar system, and so is a representative -of the Divine. 
The soul of man dwells in the external ; the inmost spirit 
dwells in the soul, and this reaches to the Divine. Hence it 
is said "The kingdom of God is within you." Of course it 
must be there, or no where, for God is all and in all. This is 
not saying that he is all things, or that all things are God. 

The truth on this subject has been so well expressed by 
another, whose views have already enriched these pages, that, 
I cannot doubt the gratification it will afford the reader to 
find them quoted here.* 

" There is a correspondence between the laws of matter and 
all the laws of spiritual-natural, spiritual, and celestial being. 
They are the ultimate exponents of all internal and inmost 
laws and principles, supporting and containing them ; so that 
the different spheres are discrete concentric-parallelisms. 
Thus the law of centripetal force represents and corresponds 
to the spiritual-natural law of self love — each performing all- 
important uses in their different spheres. Through the opera- 
tion of centripetal force all material bodies are formed. It is 
aggregative, conglomerative, individualizing, integrating, ac- 
cumulative, and conservative. Through its agency the earths 
and planets are formed, and our bodies aggregated and indivi- 
dualized. ' Without its perpetual operation all forms would 
dissolve and material nature be dissipated. So, correspond- 
ingly, the law of self love is centripetal, constituting self the 
centre of all life and enjoyment. It is aggregative, integrative, 
accumulative, and conservative, and forms and gives sub- 
stance to and individualizes our spiritual-natural existence. 
Without it, we could have no spiritual-natural selfhood. In 
like manner the law of centrifugal force represents and cor- 
responds to the spiritual law of neighborly love. Through its 
incessant operation a wholesale aggregation of all substances 
and individualities into one solid body, is prevented, and each 
individual object held in its proper orbit. So neighborly love, 
the spiritual centrifugal force, antagonizes the law of self love, 
the centripetal, and holding it in check, saves separate indivi- 
dualities from absorption into one, as the centripetal and cen 
trifugal forces antagonizing each other, form separate material 
bodies, so self love and the love of others, antagonizing each 
other, individualizes the human spirit. The law of self love, 
in the formation of the human spirit, is as indispensable as the 

* By W. S. Courtney, Esq., of Pittsburgh, Pa., originally written 
for " Th$ Spirit World." 



THE TRUE GOD. . 421" 

law of the centripetal force in the formation of his body ; and 
Swedenborg may well say that " all men are first born into 
proprium." So is the law of neighborly love as indispensable 
as the centrifugal power. They produce equilibrium in 
and by which man is moulded, formed, and qualified for a 
higher life. The fallacious, yet ingeniously elaborated " froe 
will" theory of the New Church, is built upon this equilibrium, 
which, in fact, is the veriest necessity — the argument is a /eZo 
de se. Self love is essentially aggregative and conservative, 
while neighborly love is essentially expansive and progressive. 
But it is to be remembered that this antagonism is not abso- 
lute, but only apparent. Both the centripetal and centrifugal 
forces are, at bottom, or in their inmost, the same, just as the 
projectile and rebounding force are the same force, yet anta- 
gonizing each other, or just as the same force that drives in 
one nail drives out another. In the inmost or celestial life it 
is a self-poised, self-controlled power — equilibrium in itself, if 
I may so speak' — an all-central being; when the conflicts of 
self love and neighborly love in the external, are lost, ignored, 
unknown, in the all-absorbing love of the Lord ! 

Those different degrees of life may be scientifically stated, 
with their parrailelisms or correspondences, thus : — 

External, Natural, Centrijpetal, Love of self. 

Internal, Spiritual, Centritugal, Love of others. 

Inmost, Celestial, Self-poised, Love of God. 

God. God. God. God. 

The Divine Himself being the very inmost of the celestial 
or highest degree — the " Real Reality" of which the universe, 
and all things of it, are but the outward symbols or shadows. 

It is easy to see that it is utterly impossible for man in phyr 
sical life to satisfy his spiritual longings and wants. He must 
submit himself to the heavy conditions of material laws. He 
cannot have what he wants without an expensive and tedious 
appliance of means. He cannot be where he wishes, without 
transporting his "cumbrous clay." He cannot say to yon 
mountain, " Be thou removed and cast into the sea," expecting 
it will be done. As a physical being, he is the veriest slave 
of natural law. So, while in spiritual-natural life, it is wholly 
out of the question for him to live a spiritual life, while in the 
sphere of self love, which perpetually defeats every attempt at 
peace, harmony, and quiet. It would be unnecessary for me 
to detail the accumulated imperfections of this life. Neither 
will a rational life satisfy our interior conceptions of a perfect 
life. To find out truth by laborious ratiocination, and be per- 
petually liable to error — traveling up the hill of science only 
to see " Alps on Alps arise," " ever doing and never done," 



422 . BOOK OF HUMAN NATURE. 

but belies the interior thirstings of the spirit for a life of har- 
mony and holiness. In like manner it is impossible for a 
moral man, as a moral man, to lead a perfect life, (even in a 
sphere where all is good and true,) because morality is founded 
upon and perpetually relates to both the evil and the good, the 
true and the false. It depends for its very existence upon evil 
and falsity as well as good and truth. The moral man must 
perpetually experience the evil as well as the good, the false 
as well as the true, to feed and keep alive his moral sense. 
Truth only appears by the contrast of the false, and good only 
by contrast of the evil. All the moral virtues, such as bene- 
volence, pity, praise, mercy, justice, &c., necessarily relate to 
their antagonistic vices, malevolence, cruelty, blame, injustice, 
&c. ; and without the continual experience of the correlatives, 
both the knowledge and sentiment of good and evil, truth and 
falsity, would fade away, and his moral constitution speedily 
die. The moral man needs evil as well as good. They are 
the food that keeps alive his moral being, and when they are 
not he cannot live, (except as a celestial man,) for then all 
motive, reward, punishment, all idea of consequence or re- 
sponsibility is taken away. He no longer knows the right, 
because the wrong is not; he no longer knows the good, 
because the evil is not. He has no choice — no merit, no 
blame. He is no longer ruled and governed by motives, by 
regard to consequences. The idea of accountability no longer 
dominates his love or his actions, it is forever abolished. He 
knows not duty or the rule of right , he is forever above and 
beyond it — a celestial man, living in a sphere where his will 
or love has no outward motive, attraction, or repulsion, to 
tyrannize it, but is wholly subjective, spontaneous and free — 
plenary with the Divine Love, which is its own law ! The 
allegorical history of the beginning of the human race proves 
this. They were in the garden of Eden, leading a celestial 
life, knowing neither good nor evil ; having no idea of respon- 
Bibility, no liability to consequences. But when they had done 
the evil they forthwith knew both the evil and the good, and 
thenceforth were moral beings, and driven from that celestial 
life which they had lost by the knowledge of good and evil, 
into a world where moral rule bore sway, there to yield a 
long obedience to its demands and requirements before they 
were again qualified for re-entering paradise. Now, if God is 
a moral Being, and nothing more, then I affirm that He is a 
doer of and a participator in evil as well as good, and is con- 
trolled in His actions and loves by motives, accountability and 
consequence. There is, then, a Power external to Him, above 
and beyond Him, that dominates His actions and will, and de- 
clares Him imperfect. He is no longer His own law, or a 



THE TRUE GOD. - 423 

law unto Himself. His being is derivative and dependent, 
and brought into subjection to a higher Power. But God, as 
also man, displays himself in a character above and beyond the 
moral man — in the celestial or divine character ; the inmost 
life, v/here action and love are wholly and completely subjec- 
tive, spontaneous, and self-sufficient — where the measure of 
our existence is our own unlimited and unconditioned will and 
delight — where whatevei* we will, and as much as we will, we 
forthwith enjoy— and where whatever and as much as we wish 
to know, we forthwith intuitively see — where our will, being 
all-good, no evil comes, neither is known, and where our 
knowledge or truth, being all-intuitive, no error comes, neither 
is known — " v/here moth nor rust corrupteth not, and where 
thieves break not through nor steal." 

It is therefore plain that man's physical life, social life, 
moral life, and spiritual life, with all their long and sad dispen- 
sations and economies of good and evil, truth and error, are 
but transient phenomena of humanity, and inevitably destined 
to fall before and be completely subjected to his celestial or 
inmost life. They exist only as means — as servants of the 
Most High, in the development of man's innermost life, and 
are but temporary and administrative. In my last sphere of 
life, as being only a proximate subject of God's boundless love, 
the rewards and penalties of all former economies are not only 
obsolete, but the entire statute book is burned, and the very 
memory of merit and default obviously eclipsed or expunged 
forever by the " fulness of joy and pleasures evermore," just 
as the feeble rays of the stars, at dawn, fade away and are lost 
in the eifulgent heat and light of the noon-day sun. 

It hence follows that all men, in their innermost life, or as 
the proximate subjects of God's love, are guiltless and blame- 
less before Him. There are, then, no distinctions of age nor 
clime, of race or color. Every little curley-headed negro 
that wanders along the banks of each " ancient river," or 
o'er each " palmy plain," as well as a Howard, a Fourier, or 
a Swedenborg, has, in his inmost, by virtue of his Divine 
Original, " an inheritance incorruptible, undefiled, and which 
fadeth not away, eternal in the heavens." 

God, in his representative material character, or as the 
author and upholder of the laws of matter, governs and con- 
trols infallibly, all the material universe, from the falling spar- 
row to the comet's whirl. In His civil character, or as the 
Originator and Conservator of civil society, by His agents, the 
legislators and police officers, he is intent upon overhauling the 
burglar, immuring the culprit, and restraining and punishing 
the sallies and aberrations of self-love. So in His moral cha- 
racter, or as a merely moral God, very truly, He is a God of 



424 BOOK OF HUMAN NATUKE. 

praise and blame, watching the delinquencies and praise- 
worthiness of His moral subjects, and through His appointed 
means of remorse and peace of mind, punishing and rewarding 
their default or their merit. But in His divine character. He 
is a God neither of condemnation nor praise, neither of guilt 
nor innocence — but a God of infinite and unconditional love, 
making man, in his final character, the thrilling subject of it 
for ever. Before Him, in this charci^ter, the very prince of 
iniquity is without sin, standing before Him, absolved from air 
blackness; and even before the moral God he has a plea to 
urge that it is unanswerably valid, namely, his Divine Original, 
his God-made and God-given life. But before the celestial 
God pleas are never made, excuses never heard — "all is very 
good." 

There is an instinct deep in the heart of man, that teaches 
us this truth. The very worst of criminals hopes still in God, 
and after all the codes, philosophies, and creeds of man have, 
without appeal, decided that hope to be vain and idle, still it is 
warmly alive in his breast. No man, no matter how utterly evil 
and abandoned, ever died with the undoubted certainty, with 
the deep conviction, that he would be damned for ever. There 
is still a chance, still an obscure faith that his case is not 
wholly desperate, but that through the boundless mercy of 
God, he may yet find peace to his soul. You can't extinguish 
this ray in him that beams from the interior depths of his soul, 
by judicial sentence, philosophic deduction, or sectarian ana- 
thema. Neither creeds nor philosophers can interpose be- 
tween God and His creature. They cannot divorce him from 
his Divine Original. He is still His creature, and God will 
take care of him through earth and hell. 

The churches of Christendom know God only as a moral 
being. They have no idea of Him, despite their pretensions, 
in his His divine or celestial character. They see Him only 
as a God of prayer, praise, adulation, and atonement ; who re- 
wards and punishes according to desert ; who inflicts penalty 
and awards praise ; who condemns and who redeems. The 
very attributes they ascribe to Him testify that they regard 
Him only as a Moral Being, namely, justice, mercy, pity, 
sympathy, commiseration, grace, &c. &c., which relate only 
to His moral character. Hence, He smiles approbation and 
frowns condemnation ; is angry, is pleased, is glorified and 
exalted. And he has all the necessary imperfections and vir- 
tues of a moral being. They see and know Him not in Hi's 
divine character, before which all these distinctions are as 
nothing. They are only the censors of public and private 
morality, loud and vehement in their denunciations and adula- 
tions. This, and the crudeness of their morality, is the origin 



THE TEUE aOD. 425 

of the dogma of the essential total depravity of man, the very 
opposite of the truth, and a gross libel upon God — of the fall 
of man, eternal hell, &c. &c. If man fell at all, it was when 
he conceived these diabolical notions. The whole machinery 
of the current Christian church displays God only as a moral 
governor and ruler of the universe. It is, or was, as Sweden- 
borg says, a spiritual church, a church in which the love of the 
neighbor (the moral element,) was supreme. But even that 
life has departed from it, and were it deeply analyzed, the 
" love of self and the world" would be found its only life. 
When, therefore, it undertakes to pronounce upon my moral 
worth, I legitimately fall under its condemnation, just as I am 
obnoxious to the civil law for my social behavior. But when 
it preposterously assumes to interpose its verdict between my 
God and me, as a final judgment that fixes forever my future 
destiny, it meets only my unmingled scorn and contempt. I 
reply that I have within me a celestial heaven, unpolluted with 
evil, where I am white and clean before God — a city of re- 
fuge in my inmost, where the waylaid and hunted culprit of 
moral and civil life is forever secure from their pains and 
penalties, and though once covered with guilt, yet there I am 
white as snow. The celestial church, that church which will 
arise upon the earth, when the celestial degree of the mind is 
opened, and in which the love of the Lord is supreme and all- 
sufficient, there will be no creed, no tariff of penalties and re- 
wards, no judgments pronounced, no final audit and adjustment 
of accounts — but only the measureless delight of God'fe love, 
including all outward and imperfect Systems of life." 



426 BOOK OF HUMAN NATUKE. 



HUMAN DESTINY. 

HARMONIOUS, PROGRESSIVE, ETERNAL. 



Evils to he Remedied. 

299. It would not be invidious, nor incorrect, perhaps, if I 
were to affirm, that within a very recent period, it has been 
quite common for reformers to reason on the evils of the social 
state, as if they were to say, the remedy for ignorance is 
knowledge ; the remedy for sickness is health ; the remedy for 
war is peace ; the remedy for slavery is liberty. But, I ask, 
is this true in philosophy ? Let us see. Here is an invalid. 
His vital system is very much deranged by a course of intem- 
perate living. Now, would it be the highest, best good for 
that sick man, if I were to cause him to be perfectly well in 
an instant 1 He knows nothing of the laws of health, nothing 
of those causes which have made him an invalid ; and under 
these (?ircumstances he is put instantly into the enjoyment of 
perfect health 1 How long would that siate of health be con- 
tinued? Here are two brothers. One is strong, the other 
weak. Their combativeness is large, and they have been not 
only allowed to indulge it, but they have been taught to do so. 
They have read in the Bible " an eye for an eye, and a tooth 
for a tooth." Their parents did so before them. They give 
blow for blow, and when once excited, the weaker falls a prey 
to the ungovernable temper of the elder. The stronger now 
oppresses and enslaves the weaker brother. He puts chains 
upon his body and his mind ; he scourges him without mercy. 
Now, what is the remedy for this state of things 1 That I, 
being stronger than both the brothers should interfere and by 
force compel a cessation of the wrong? The wrong ought to 
cease instantly and for ever. But how can this state of things 
be brought about, except by going back to the source whence 
the whole difficulty had its germination 1 Pour the light of 
heaven upon the true relations of life. Let the stronger 
brother perceive the error which has become a part of his 
education. That done, and he oppresses his brother no more. 
And precisely in the spot where this difficulty began, where 



EVILS TO BE EEMEDIED. 427 

the germ was lodged which has developed this bitter fruit, 
between these two brothers, you will find the seed from which 
all wars, all tyranny, all slavery and oppression have sprung. 
To eradicate these evils, therefore, we need not be told we 
want peace and freedom ; for peace and freedom are not 
exotics, something to be superadded to human nature and the 
social state. These blessings flow from the social state, they 
are indigenous, and spring as naturally from appropriate cul- 
ture, as the other evils come up like the noxious weeds in the 
garden for the want of it. 

We shall find those great fundamental Truths which most con- 
cern human welfare, are, after all, the most simple and easily 
understood when once presented to the mind. Those provi- 
sions in the physical universe, which are the most necessary 
for the sustenance of life, are the most common and the most 
easy of access. The sun shines for all. The air surrounds 
the entire globe, and rushes into the lungs of the infant the 
moment it is born. The water so common and so necessary 
for all the purposes of life, see in what sufficiency it is pro- 
vided, not only in the springs, pools, rivers, and lakes that are 
everywhere found all over the earth, but it is poured down 
upon us from the clouds out of heaven, as if God had adopted 
this method for rendering man the more sensible of his 
bounties. 

Why then, is man so slow in learning his true destiny ? 
Ah ! why 1 Why was he so long in finding out that he is 
a man 1 How long had you lived before you made this 
important discovery 1 Nay, have you made it to this day 1 
Have you found out what is involved in your selfhood ? In 
the conjugal relation ? The parental, the filial, and the 
fraternal '? Found it all out? Indeed! And what Divinity, 
what Goodness, what Justice, what real Happiness are here? 
And so simple, so beautiful, so easily understood, so feasible. 
The remedy we want is within the reach of all. Say not who 
shall ascend to bring it down from on high ? Nor who shall 
descend to bring it up from the deep. The remedy is near 
thee, in thee, the words of faith, of instruction, already 
taught. 

What then, is the problem to be solved, what are the evils 
to be removed ? And how shall it be done ? 

" The whole creation groaneth, and travaileth in pain to- 
gether until now." From the beginning nature's throes have 
betokened the progressive tendencies of the race. See how 
it speaks out even amidst the darkness of the first century 
of the present era. A master in Israel, a great teacher of 
that age, thus pressed on his. hearers the necessity of mental 
culture, which was to spring from ceasing from the external, 



428 BOOK OF HUMAN NATURE. 

and attending to the internal, the kingdom of God, or those 
social relations that are within all : — 

"■ Take no thought, saying, What shall we eat ? or. What 
shall we drink ? or. Wherewithal shall we be clothed 1 For 
after all these things do the Gentiles seek ; and your Heavenly 
Father knoweth that ye have need to these things. Bat seek 
ye first the Kingdom of God, and His righteousness ; and all 
these things sljall be added unto you." ^ 

This travail of creation extends throughout the universe ; 
pervades each kingdom in nature, shapes the methods of man, 
and tinctures even the sectarian teachings of the old theology 
in despite of formulas and creeds. 

Who has not himself, perceived and felt these progressive 
tendencies 1 What changes have a few years brought about in 
your own mind 1 Compare your present aspirations for pro- 
gression in goodness and truth, with what you hoped for a few 
years ago? Can you perceive no difference? Are you no 
more a man or a woman now, than twenty years ago ? Do 
you perceive no advancement 1 

Problem of Society. 

300. The views already given of Human Nature are abund- 
antly sufficient to show why society has hitherto been con- 
structed so much like the wheel of fortune, on which every 
man has striven to raise himself, by lowering his brother, while 
the lowest have been crushed to death by becoming a support 
and easy prey to all the rest. Let us inquire, then, as to the 
present state of things in respect to 

FREEDOM. 

301. We have shown, that individual sovereignty is the 
true, doctrine of manhood. That state of society, therefore, 
which is pointed out and sought after by the inherent relations 
of life, must be one that recognizes this as the fundamental 
principle of all freedom, of all government, of all law, social, 
civil, or ecclesiastical. Hence, nothing can be more evident 
than the fact, that as this important principle is not fundamental 
in the sectarian theology of the past nor the bigoted forms of 
civil governments, which have so much ground and oppressed 
the mass, so, those old crazy forms will be slow to recognize 
the new principle when it is once fully developed, and has 
taken possession, extensively of large masses of mind. Those 
sectarian organisms are tenacious of life. So is the cancerous 
tumor that has stole its place in the living body, defacing all 
that is fair and beautiful in the human form. The ugly 
excrescence drinks up the vitality that should flow to the supply 



PROBLEM OF SOCIETY. 429 

of the different parts of the body ; there it remains, increasing 
in size and virulence, feeding on the materials supplied for the 
health of the system, and which should thus be invigorated to 
cast off the putrid mass for ever. But alas, too often we find 
the deadly fangs of the abnormal formation extending far into 
the vitals, and even mingling their poisonous threads away 
back, next to the nerves of life. How shall they be extri- 
cated ? How shall this mass of putrescence be removed, so as 
not to do harm to the parts with which it is found so closely 
united 1 

Suppose we go back to the process of nutrition ; we find the 
laboratory where the food is prepared on which the cancer 
itself must feed, or die of starvation. Now, if we can so 
arrange with nature, or the system, as to inf^uce a cessation 
of nutrition, if we can by some means ent off supplies, the 
tumor wastes away, and disappears. It Hves on something. 
Deprive it of all food, and see how Ir-n^ it will remain. 

Precisely so of all those evils whj'jh have impinged on per- 
sonal freedom. Let us go into D«i*»jre's laboratories into those 
relations, out of which the indiv^Vual is known to be developed. 
Here is the place to lay the fo' Nidation for the greatest amount 
of practical freedom for ei^b individual. Let this doctrine, 
this Divine precept of m?n'i individual sovereignty be taught 
in the beginning, let it b^ carried deep, far back, into all the 
instructions of life. L' t it become the intellectual food with 
which the infant nv^ is first fed. Let it reach the inner 
processes of menta'' and spiritual nutrition, and see how 
marvelous the ''.hTf»ge will be. Perhaps, not very sudden, as 
all of nature'? regular processes are slow. But, sure and 
certain wiU he the attractions in the social system. All those 
deformiti-^s known under the name of slavery, disappear for 
the want of food on which to subsist, a process of cure at once 
uat'iril.tiasy and perfectly safe. The surgeon's knife is fright- 
lul and repulsive in the contemplation. How much better, 
rbea the tumor, as it is sometimes said to do, cures itself. 
That is not true, perhaps, in the sense supposed. And yet, 
locial evils may, and often do, excite attention to the causes 
Ihat have produced them, and when those are clearly seen, 
the process of relief becomes a simple and vety easy matter. 

This view of freedom may be said to be the great American 
Idea. The right of self-control, of self-government, the 
security of the largest liberty for each individual. An idea, 
often obscured it may be, often covered up and hid amid the 
antagonizing interests of different sections and parties, yet, it 
is the one great fundamental Truth, destined yet to possess 
and monopolize the mass. As freedom is the elementary in- 
herent life knd right of the individual, so it is of the family^ 



430 BOOK OF HUMAN NATURE. 

and the nation, the whole human race. We not only must be 
free, but we must be as free as the relations of life can possibly 
make us. And, as these relations are Divine, as they are 
higher, and before all laws, all governments, all conventional 
compacts, so they must shape and fix the destinies of the 
whole Human Race. We next inquire as to 



302. The true philosophy of man's social nature, gives the 
only satisfactory answer that can be given to the following 
problem : 

The most appropriate rewards of Labor. 

It has been, and is now to a great extent, labor is repulsive, 
and is compelled, without any just rewards. It is our general 
system of oppression. Two-thirds of the population labor for 
the production of the necessaries and luxuries of life, which 
are consumed without any just reward by the other portion, 
who live totally idle or employed in schemes of mischief for 
oppressing those whom they have enslaved. Every man who 
offers his services as a laborer, thereby comes in competition 
with another as poor as himself, and between the two a state 
of antagonism is thus engendered which lowers the wages of 
both. And thus the comforts and necessaries of their ex- 
istence, and that of all dependent upon them, is lessened. In- 
stead of recognizing the relation of fraternity, without which 
no true state of society can possibly exist, the principle of 
individualism is perverted into pure selfishness, and thus each 
one struggles on, under the supposition that he can prosper 
only in so far as he antagonizes with his neighbor and by 
superior management, secures either his failure or utter de- 
struction. How much among the laboring classes may be 
truly likened to the whited sepulchre, outwardly all pomp and 
strength, but inwardly full of horror and despair and dead 
men's bones ! 

It has been truly said,* that iron highways, with their fire- 
winged horses, are uniting all ends of the land. Quays, besides, 
with their innumerable, stately fleets, tame the ocean into a 
pliant bearer of burdens. Labor's thousand arms of sinew and 
of metal, all conquering everywhere, from the tops of the 
mountain to the depths of the mine and the caverns of the sea, 
ply unceasingly for the service of man. Yet man remains un- 
served. He has subdued this planet, his habitation and inhe- 
ritance, yet reaps no profit from the victory. Sad to look 
upon in the highest state of civilization, nine-tenths of mankind 

* Quoted in Spirit World, vol. ii. p. 15. 



FRATERNITY. 431 

struggle in the battle of savage man — the battle against 
famine ! 

Fraternity. 

303. How, then, are these evils to be remedied? What 
does society want in order to avoid the causes of discord, dis- 
trust, and conflicting, destructive antagonisms 1 How shall the 
interests of each one be made to co-operate with and assist 
each other ? How shall we have the greatest freedom and all 
desirable security for person and property 1 

The true answer to each of these interrogatories, has been 
anticipated. There is, there can be but one answer, and that 
is found in the principle of fraternity, equality, individual 
sovereignty. These principles completely cover the whole 
ground of modern reform, including all that was contemplated 
by Fourier, as well as the present questions of land and labor 
reforms ; and also all the various moral reforms of the age. 
The true friends of social reform will agree, I think, that these 
great principles comprehend all that can be asked or hoped for, 
in behalf of humanity — and hence, no " church," nor " sect,'' 
nor " plan," nor " circle," nor " organization," new or old, 
will ever become permanent, or do for the race what we all 
want done, that leaves out of view a practical recognition of the 
doctrine of individual sovereignty and universal fraternity or 
equality. The truth is, reformers, as a class, the world over, 
have become tired of " constitutions" and " organizations.'*"" 
If what we all want, could have been realized by " organiza- 
tions," have we not had enough of them ! The church, and 
the race, have, so to speak, been governed to death by " plans" 
and " constitutions." The race have been " organized," and 
" re-organized" into thousands and tens of thousands of parties, 
and still we all confess ourselves destitute of that which we 
most want — fraternity and universal harmony * Clairvoyants 
and philosophers like Fourier, have made many attempts to 
point out the remedy. Fourier, evidently, had a very good 
idea of the object, as indeed, many others have done since. All 
the attempts at association, all the " strikes," and " trade 
unions," have had this object in view. But that Fourier did 
not fully discover what would be the most appropriate means for 
accomplishing his object, is manifest from the failures that have 
everywhere followed the attempts to carry out his " plans." All 
plans, must fail, which fail to recognize and carry out those 
fundamental principles which grow out of the innate rela- 

* Read " Theory of Human Progression and Natural probability of 
a Reign of Justice." Some sectarian notions in it, but, a most va- 
luable work. Stearns & Co., New York. 



482 BOOK OF HUMAN NATURE. 

tions of life ; and these are two, as we have seen, individual 
sovereignty, and fraternity, justice, or equality. Adopt these 
heaven-born principles, and then unite as much as the circum- 
stances of the case may render expedient. There will be no 
antagonism, no friction, but emulation in skill, in goodness, in 
wisdom, there may, and should be. This is the stimulus of 
the social state. It is in these correlative and fundamental 
axioms that was discovered those most important and essential 
principles of commerce, which fix cost as the limit of pricey 
and adopts the supply to the extent of demand. *^ 

" The gloomy night is breaking, 

E'en now the sunbeams rest, 
With a faint, yet cheering radiance, 

On the hill-tops of the West. 

The mists are slowly rising 

from the valley and the plain, ' 
And the spirit is awaking, 

That shall never sleep again. 

Then onward, upward. Heavenward, 

The spirit still will soar, 
Till Peace and Love shall triumph. 
And DiscoKD reign no more." 



* First announced by Mr. Josiah Warren, now of " Modern Times," 
Long Island, N. Y. Eead his work, entitled, *' Equitable Commerce ; 
A New Development of Principles for the Hai'monious Adjustment 
and Kegulation of. the Pecuniary, Intellectual, and Moral Intercourse 
of Mankind, proposed as Elements of New Society." 

Also, two works, by Stephen P. Andrews, Esq., entitled, "The 
Science of Society." No. 1, and 2. 

For sale by Steabns & Co., 25 Ann Street, New York. 












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